JUDY WOODRUFF: Now a potentially exciting development in the search for an Ebola vaccine, and to Hari Sreenivasan.

HARI SREENIVASAN: Results of a clinical trial conducted in the West African country of Guinea and published today in the medical journal “Lancet” found an experimental vaccine was 75 percent to 100 percent effective in blocking new infections of the Ebola virus.

The trial involved more than 7,000 people, over 3,500 of whom were vaccinated. Guinea is one of three West African countries that marked the epicenter of the 2014 Ebola outbreak that killed more than 10,000 people.

For more on efforts to create a vaccine and on this trial, I am joined by Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health.

So, you have got — there are several different companies and people working on vaccines, including a member of your team, but today we hear words like game-changer, you know, these are significant results. Why was this so important?

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, National Institutes of Health: Well, it’s significant because of the outcome of the trial. It showed rather impressive results.

Now, it was done under very difficult circumstances, so that’s really very important. It was done right during the intensity of the outbreak itself. And the data that have been released today show that the results are really quite favorable. There is still a lot of work to be done to determine, in fact, if this protection against Ebola is durable, mainly that it can last for several months, because we certainly would like to have this available for future outbreaks.

And, inevitably, there will be future outbreaks of Ebola. So this is an important step in our armamentarium of preventing Ebola infection, in addition to the public health measures that you do to prevent infection.

HARI SREENIVASAN: But what did they do? How did they figure out that this is effective?

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: Well, it was a very interesting design to the study.

It’s called a ring vaccination study, ring meaning you create a ring around an index case of when someone gets infected, and you vaccinate the contacts of that person and the contacts of the contacts. But the thing about the ring study is that it was randomized, so when they identified a case of Ebola, they had two rings, one in which got vaccinated immediately, and one which got vaccinated 21 days afterward.

And then they compared the number of infections in those who were vaccinated immediately vs. those who had a delay of 21 days, and the results were rather impressive, because the number of Ebola infections in the people who were vaccinated immediately was zero, and the number of infections for those who had vaccination on a delayed basis was 17.

Now, relatively speaking, this is an interim analysis of results, but it’s still rather impressive. Now we’re going to have to look at the details of the data to really delve into what it means. But having said that, it’s important that the results came out this way.

HARI SREENIVASAN: This is — you alluded to this earlier. This is in the middle of an epidemic. This isn’t our kind of definition of a gold standard of a clinical trial, where you give some people medicine and some people a placebo, because I would imagine it’s almost unethical to not give someone a medication when you see people dying within days of having the virus.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: Well, I wouldn’t say it’s unethical. But it’s difficult to do in situations like that.

But if you don’t know what works, and you do a controlled trial, then you get informed consent about how you’re going to do the trial, and then it really is quite ethical. So — but I think that this design was an interesting, novel design. It’s fashioned after the design of how we approached smallpox and the elimination of smallpox.

It was a creative design that was done under difficult circumstances.

HARI SREENIVASAN: When people think of vaccines, they also think of things that actually have the virus in it. Did this vaccine have Ebola in it?

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: No, it didn’t. It had a protein of Ebola.

So let me explain what it is. A virus was used called vesicular stomatitis virus, which is a virus that infects animals. It rarely infects humans. And what the virus was is, you took one gene of Ebola and inserted it into this other virus, and then injected this other virus into the vaccine recipients.

Once it got in them, it started making the Ebola protein, so none of the individuals got the Ebola virus itself. They got the protein of Ebola that was given to them through this vector or this carrier virus.

HARI SREENIVASAN: All right, Dr. Anthony Fauci from the National Institutes of Health, thanks so much for joining us.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Now a potentially exciting development in the search for an Ebola vaccine, and to Hari Sreenivasan.

HARI SREENIVASAN: Results of a clinical trial conducted in the West African country of Guinea and published today in the medical journal “Lancet” found an experimental vaccine was 75 percent to 100 percent effective in blocking new infections of the Ebola virus.

The trial involved more than 7,000 people, over 3,500 of whom were vaccinated. Guinea is one of three West African countries that marked the epicenter of the 2014 Ebola outbreak that killed more than 10,000 people.

For more on efforts to create a vaccine and on this trial, I am joined by Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health.

So, you have got — there are several different companies and people working on vaccines, including a member of your team, but today we hear words like game-changer, you know, these are significant results. Why was this so important?

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, National Institutes of Health: Well, it’s significant because of the outcome of the trial. It showed rather impressive results.

Now, it was done under very difficult circumstances, so that’s really very important. It was done right during the intensity of the outbreak itself. And the data that have been released today show that the results are really quite favorable. There is still a lot of work to be done to determine, in fact, if this protection against Ebola is durable, mainly that it can last for several months, because we certainly would like to have this available for future outbreaks.

And, inevitably, there will be future outbreaks of Ebola. So this is an important step in our armamentarium of preventing Ebola infection, in addition to the public health measures that you do to prevent infection.

HARI SREENIVASAN: But what did they do? How did they figure out that this is effective?

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: Well, it was a very interesting design to the study.

It’s called a ring vaccination study, ring meaning you create a ring around an index case of when someone gets infected, and you vaccinate the contacts of that person and the contacts of the contacts. But the thing about the ring study is that it was randomized, so when they identified a case of Ebola, they had two rings, one in which got vaccinated immediately, and one which got vaccinated 21 days afterward.

And then they compared the number of infections in those who were vaccinated immediately vs. those who had a delay of 21 days, and the results were rather impressive, because the number of Ebola infections in the people who were vaccinated immediately was zero, and the number of infections for those who had vaccination on a delayed basis was 17.

Now, relatively speaking, this is an interim analysis of results, but it’s still rather impressive. Now we’re going to have to look at the details of the data to really delve into what it means. But having said that, it’s important that the results came out this way.

HARI SREENIVASAN: This is — you alluded to this earlier. This is in the middle of an epidemic. This isn’t our kind of definition of a gold standard of a clinical trial, where you give some people medicine and some people a placebo, because I would imagine it’s almost unethical to not give someone a medication when you see people dying within days of having the virus.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: Well, I wouldn’t say it’s unethical. But it’s difficult to do in situations like that.

But if you don’t know what works, and you do a controlled trial, then you get informed consent about how you’re going to do the trial, and then it really is quite ethical. So — but I think that this design was an interesting, novel design. It’s fashioned after the design of how we approached smallpox and the elimination of smallpox.

It was a creative design that was done under difficult circumstances.

HARI SREENIVASAN: When people think of vaccines, they also think of things that actually have the virus in it. Did this vaccine have Ebola in it?

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: No, it didn’t. It had a protein of Ebola.

So let me explain what it is. A virus was used called vesicular stomatitis virus, which is a virus that infects animals. It rarely infects humans. And what the virus was is, you took one gene of Ebola and inserted it into this other virus, and then injected this other virus into the vaccine recipients.

Once it got in them, it started making the Ebola protein, so none of the individuals got the Ebola virus itself. They got the protein of Ebola that was given to them through this vector or this carrier virus.

HARI SREENIVASAN: All right, Dr. Anthony Fauci from the National Institutes of Health, thanks so much for joining us.

]]>http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/long-lasting-promising-ebola-vaccine-protection/feed/05:01A clinical trial in Guinea found that an experimental vaccine was 75 to 100 percent effective in blocking new infections of the Ebola virus. Hari Sreenivasan speaks to Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health about the vaccine.no Watch Video | Listen to the Audio JUDY WOODRUFF: Now a potentially exciting development in the search for an Ebola vaccine, and to Hari Sreenivasan. HARI SREENIVASAN: Results of a clinical trial conducted in the West African country of Guinea and publish PBS NewsHourWorld,News,Current,Events,NewsHour,Television,Radio,Mediahttp://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/long-lasting-promising-ebola-vaccine-protection/Debris may be first trace of missing Malaysian planehttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewshourWorldPodcast/~3/yG7WjuUelKc/
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/debris-may-first-trace-missing-malaysian-plane/#commentsThu, 30 Jul 2015 22:45:14 +0000 PBS NewsHourhttp://www.pbs.org/newshour/?post_type=bb&p=151818

JUDY WOODRUFF: The year-plus mystery over what happened to a missing Malaysian airliner captured headlines again, this time a long way from the search area.

Small waves rolled in along the coast of the Indian Ocean island of Reunion, just a day after the world’s attention was brought to debris washed up on shore. It appeared to be part of a plane wing. And now, it’s being sent to a French military lab near Toulouse. That’s where aviation investigators are headed to determine if it’s the first trace of wreckage from the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.
Malaysia’s chief of civil aviation:

AZHARUDDIN ABDUL RAHMAN, Director General of Civil Aviation, Malaysia: I’m leading a team to Toulouse tonight to verify and to investigate whether that particular part comes from a Boeing 777 or if it comes from MH370.

JUDY WOODRUFF: It’s been more than a year since the Boeing 777 disappeared. The plane was en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014, but then turned south, and vanished from radar somewhere over the Indian Ocean. It was carrying 239 passengers and crew.

Since then, its disappearance has remained a mystery. Despite extensive search efforts, nothing had been found, leaving families to linger in uncertainty and frustration.

DAI SHUQIN, Sister of Missing Passenger (through interpreter): They claim to have found debris of the MH370 on an island? We don’t accept this. We do not believe what they claim. The finding doesn’t constitute anything.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Australia’s deputy prime minister said this new discovery could be a major breakthrough, but added:

WARREN TRUSS, Deputy Prime Minister, Australia: It’s been in the water for a year-and-a-half now and it’s moved, obviously, a considerable distance. So, it won’t be all that helpful in pinpointing precisely where the aircraft might be located. But if this wreckage is linked to MH370, it will certainly confirm that the aircraft has gone into the water in the Indian Ocean area.
JUDY WOODRUFF: It may be more than a week before investigators are able to determine that.

JUDY WOODRUFF: The year-plus mystery over what happened to a missing Malaysian airliner captured headlines again, this time a long way from the search area.

Small waves rolled in along the coast of the Indian Ocean island of Reunion, just a day after the world’s attention was brought to debris washed up on shore. It appeared to be part of a plane wing. And now, it’s being sent to a French military lab near Toulouse. That’s where aviation investigators are headed to determine if it’s the first trace of wreckage from the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.
Malaysia’s chief of civil aviation:

AZHARUDDIN ABDUL RAHMAN, Director General of Civil Aviation, Malaysia: I’m leading a team to Toulouse tonight to verify and to investigate whether that particular part comes from a Boeing 777 or if it comes from MH370.

JUDY WOODRUFF: It’s been more than a year since the Boeing 777 disappeared. The plane was en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014, but then turned south, and vanished from radar somewhere over the Indian Ocean. It was carrying 239 passengers and crew.

Since then, its disappearance has remained a mystery. Despite extensive search efforts, nothing had been found, leaving families to linger in uncertainty and frustration.

DAI SHUQIN, Sister of Missing Passenger (through interpreter): They claim to have found debris of the MH370 on an island? We don’t accept this. We do not believe what they claim. The finding doesn’t constitute anything.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Australia’s deputy prime minister said this new discovery could be a major breakthrough, but added:

WARREN TRUSS, Deputy Prime Minister, Australia: It’s been in the water for a year-and-a-half now and it’s moved, obviously, a considerable distance. So, it won’t be all that helpful in pinpointing precisely where the aircraft might be located. But if this wreckage is linked to MH370, it will certainly confirm that the aircraft has gone into the water in the Indian Ocean area.
JUDY WOODRUFF: It may be more than a week before investigators are able to determine that.

]]>http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/debris-may-first-trace-missing-malaysian-plane/feed/02:13A large piece of debris that washed ashore on the island of Reunion is being sent to a French military lab. Aviation investigators will determine whether it's the first trace of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, missing for more than a year. Judy Woodruff reports.no Watch Video | Listen to the Audio JUDY WOODRUFF: The year-plus mystery over what happened to a missing Malaysian airliner captured headlines again, this time a long way from the search area. Small waves rolled in along the coast of the Indian Ocean islan PBS NewsHourWorld,News,Current,Events,NewsHour,Television,Radio,Mediahttp://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/debris-may-first-trace-missing-malaysian-plane/Will debris help narrow search for MH370?http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewshourWorldPodcast/~3/gHHyy2rTl_g/
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/will-debris-help-narrow-search-mh370/#commentsThu, 30 Jul 2015 22:40:41 +0000 PBS NewsHourhttp://www.pbs.org/newshour/?post_type=bb&p=151825

JUDY WOODRUFF: The discovery of the debris raises many questions. And we look at some of them now with Van Gurley, a retired naval oceanographer whose company, Metron, helped investigators eventually find Air France Flight 447 after it crashed in the ocean off the coast of South America, and Miles O’Brien, our science correspondent, and a pilot himself, who closely watches the world of aviation.

Gentlemen, welcome to you both.

Miles, I’m going to start with you. How definitive then is it that this plane piece comes from that Boeing 777?

MILES O’BRIEN: Judy, I would put it in the high 90 percentile. This is absolutely, definitely a piece of a 777. There’s only one 777 missing in the world, much less the Indian Ocean, and there the piece is.

So what remains to be done is dot the I’s, cross the T’s, get the serial numbers. Every part on an airplane has a serial number and a long pedigree attached to it. It’s a lot of paperwork, so it will take a little bit of time to say absolutely, definitively.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So, looking at this — I know you have been watching this story since the news broke last night. Looking at what we know so far, what does it tell you?

MILES O’BRIEN: Well, it’s interesting. The way it — the damage pattern presents itself is interesting. A lot of people have been saying, well, perhaps it fell off as the aircraft struck the water.

But I have been talking to some experts who have looked at it and said two things that are interesting. The leading edge is not very damaged at all, and the trailing edge, if you look at it, almost looks like it’s been torn like a piece of paper. That would indicate stress damage.

In other words, it could have been fluttering, and that would suggest that it tore off in flight. So perhaps this aircraft was diving in a spiral at a very high rate of speed, and pieces of it were falling off.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So, that’s still speculation at this point?

MILES O’BRIEN: It is, but the damage pattern supports that.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Van Gurley, based on what you know from looking for plane parts, knowing about ocean currents, what do we know? What does this tell you, I mean, what was known about where this plane possibly went down and the fact that this may be a part all the way over close to Madagascar?

VAN GURLEY, Former Navy Oceanographer: So, Judy, this begins to answer some of the big W-questions that have been plaguing this since the beginning.

First, what happened to this flight? If this, in fact, is traced back to the Malaysian Air 370 aircraft, this says definitively the plane crashed at sea and it provides the ability for those families to get the closure they have been looking for since this began.

The second question it answered is, where would it have crashed? Now, everybody would love, and I would love to be able to say that we will be able to use some scientific method and say, because we found it here, it must have been here. The science doesn’t really support that type of accuracy.

But what it does tell us, if we look at the ocean currents in the Indian Ocean, is that, if this is, in fact, from MH370, that the plane most likely went down — that the plane definitely went down in the Indian Ocean and most likely in the eastern to southeastern Indian Ocean.

And so that begins to sort of draw circles and narrow down some of the wilder speculation that’s been out there for the last year-and-a-half.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And what about the barnacles they have shown that are on this so-called flaperon, this part of the wing?

VAN GURLEY: Right.

So, that is very strong evidence that this part has been at sea for quite a while, and it’s not something that was lost off a transport ship last week and just happened to run up, wash up on this beach. For that type of marine growth to accumulate means that the piece has been floating out at sea for a while.

I think the marine biologists, if they get a chance to look at it, can start looking at how much growth is there and then provide a better estimate of how long it must have been at sea for that to have happened.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Miles, what are the questions you and others who look at aviation and aviation safety have going forward? I mean, how much does this narrow our understanding of what could have happened?

MILES O’BRIEN: Well, you can learn a lot from the pieces, the wreckage. It can tell a real story for us.
What exactly happened? Did it break up in flight? Was there a fire? Was there some sort of explosion?

The pieces can actually tell you this kind of information. Ultimately, however, the only answers are at the bottom of the sea. And, hopefully, this will help people at least have the confidence to know they’re looking in the right part of the world, that, on that circle that Van was referring to on the map, there is some degree of confidence that they’re looking in that precise place in a — within plus or minus a few miles, whereas there was all this concern that perhaps, after that last communication with the satellite, it might have glided on for some several dozens or even close to 100 miles, making the search much less accurate.

So, I think this helps make the search more accurate and ultimately might get us to some answers.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And, Van Gurley, what about in terms of parts of the plane that will float, parts that would sink? What do we know about that?

VAN GURLEY: So, again, depending on how the aircraft is constructed, if there’s air voids and pockets, foam inserts, those types of things, then the plane — the parts would tend to stay on the surface for a longer period of time.

So, one of the things that I think I already have read in the reporting that has already started up is, if you find one piece, are there more somewhere in that part of the ocean? Every part moves differently in the ocean currents and the winds. It’s a very complex pattern, so it’s not to say we will find more things on the same beach, but it’s a high indication that the earlier projections that — if things were going to wash up, you kind of wanted to look around Madagascar, around the islands like Reunion and down off the west coast of the southern part of Africa.

So I think a continued search for those regions, looking for more pieces, parts might help to backtrack and make that — refine that, that Miles was talking about, to sort of help narrow the search area, but it is still going to be a very long process.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And so, just quickly, Miles, the next things that have to happen are what, broadening the search in that area?

MILES O’BRIEN: Exactly. Keep plowing through the ocean along that circle that was drawn by that satellite, Inmarsat satellite, that gave them a basic idea, a big swathe of ocean, to be sure, but this helps them have that confidence. And then let’s hope we can find some more debris.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Miles O’Brien, Van Gurley, it’s early, at least at this phase of the story. We thank you both.

JUDY WOODRUFF: The discovery of the debris raises many questions. And we look at some of them now with Van Gurley, a retired naval oceanographer whose company, Metron, helped investigators eventually find Air France Flight 447 after it crashed in the ocean off the coast of South America, and Miles O’Brien, our science correspondent, and a pilot himself, who closely watches the world of aviation.

Gentlemen, welcome to you both.

Miles, I’m going to start with you. How definitive then is it that this plane piece comes from that Boeing 777?

MILES O’BRIEN: Judy, I would put it in the high 90 percentile. This is absolutely, definitely a piece of a 777. There’s only one 777 missing in the world, much less the Indian Ocean, and there the piece is.

So what remains to be done is dot the I’s, cross the T’s, get the serial numbers. Every part on an airplane has a serial number and a long pedigree attached to it. It’s a lot of paperwork, so it will take a little bit of time to say absolutely, definitively.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So, looking at this — I know you have been watching this story since the news broke last night. Looking at what we know so far, what does it tell you?

MILES O’BRIEN: Well, it’s interesting. The way it — the damage pattern presents itself is interesting. A lot of people have been saying, well, perhaps it fell off as the aircraft struck the water.

But I have been talking to some experts who have looked at it and said two things that are interesting. The leading edge is not very damaged at all, and the trailing edge, if you look at it, almost looks like it’s been torn like a piece of paper. That would indicate stress damage.

In other words, it could have been fluttering, and that would suggest that it tore off in flight. So perhaps this aircraft was diving in a spiral at a very high rate of speed, and pieces of it were falling off.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So, that’s still speculation at this point?

MILES O’BRIEN: It is, but the damage pattern supports that.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Van Gurley, based on what you know from looking for plane parts, knowing about ocean currents, what do we know? What does this tell you, I mean, what was known about where this plane possibly went down and the fact that this may be a part all the way over close to Madagascar?

VAN GURLEY, Former Navy Oceanographer: So, Judy, this begins to answer some of the big W-questions that have been plaguing this since the beginning.

First, what happened to this flight? If this, in fact, is traced back to the Malaysian Air 370 aircraft, this says definitively the plane crashed at sea and it provides the ability for those families to get the closure they have been looking for since this began.

The second question it answered is, where would it have crashed? Now, everybody would love, and I would love to be able to say that we will be able to use some scientific method and say, because we found it here, it must have been here. The science doesn’t really support that type of accuracy.

But what it does tell us, if we look at the ocean currents in the Indian Ocean, is that, if this is, in fact, from MH370, that the plane most likely went down — that the plane definitely went down in the Indian Ocean and most likely in the eastern to southeastern Indian Ocean.

And so that begins to sort of draw circles and narrow down some of the wilder speculation that’s been out there for the last year-and-a-half.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And what about the barnacles they have shown that are on this so-called flaperon, this part of the wing?

VAN GURLEY: Right.

So, that is very strong evidence that this part has been at sea for quite a while, and it’s not something that was lost off a transport ship last week and just happened to run up, wash up on this beach. For that type of marine growth to accumulate means that the piece has been floating out at sea for a while.

I think the marine biologists, if they get a chance to look at it, can start looking at how much growth is there and then provide a better estimate of how long it must have been at sea for that to have happened.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Miles, what are the questions you and others who look at aviation and aviation safety have going forward? I mean, how much does this narrow our understanding of what could have happened?

MILES O’BRIEN: Well, you can learn a lot from the pieces, the wreckage. It can tell a real story for us.
What exactly happened? Did it break up in flight? Was there a fire? Was there some sort of explosion?

The pieces can actually tell you this kind of information. Ultimately, however, the only answers are at the bottom of the sea. And, hopefully, this will help people at least have the confidence to know they’re looking in the right part of the world, that, on that circle that Van was referring to on the map, there is some degree of confidence that they’re looking in that precise place in a — within plus or minus a few miles, whereas there was all this concern that perhaps, after that last communication with the satellite, it might have glided on for some several dozens or even close to 100 miles, making the search much less accurate.

So, I think this helps make the search more accurate and ultimately might get us to some answers.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And, Van Gurley, what about in terms of parts of the plane that will float, parts that would sink? What do we know about that?

VAN GURLEY: So, again, depending on how the aircraft is constructed, if there’s air voids and pockets, foam inserts, those types of things, then the plane — the parts would tend to stay on the surface for a longer period of time.

So, one of the things that I think I already have read in the reporting that has already started up is, if you find one piece, are there more somewhere in that part of the ocean? Every part moves differently in the ocean currents and the winds. It’s a very complex pattern, so it’s not to say we will find more things on the same beach, but it’s a high indication that the earlier projections that — if things were going to wash up, you kind of wanted to look around Madagascar, around the islands like Reunion and down off the west coast of the southern part of Africa.

So I think a continued search for those regions, looking for more pieces, parts might help to backtrack and make that — refine that, that Miles was talking about, to sort of help narrow the search area, but it is still going to be a very long process.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And so, just quickly, Miles, the next things that have to happen are what, broadening the search in that area?

MILES O’BRIEN: Exactly. Keep plowing through the ocean along that circle that was drawn by that satellite, Inmarsat satellite, that gave them a basic idea, a big swathe of ocean, to be sure, but this helps them have that confidence. And then let’s hope we can find some more debris.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Miles O’Brien, Van Gurley, it’s early, at least at this phase of the story. We thank you both.

]]>http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/will-debris-help-narrow-search-mh370/feed/06:38Even though it seems more and more likely that the debris recovered on the island of Reunion is part of the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, many questions still remain. Judy Woodruff learns more from science correspondent Miles O’Brien and Van Gurley, whose company Metron helped investigators find Air France Flight 447 off the coast of South America.no Watch Video | Listen to the Audio JUDY WOODRUFF: The discovery of the debris raises many questions. And we look at some of them now with Van Gurley, a retired naval oceanographer whose company, Metron, helped investigators eventually find Air France Flig PBS NewsHourWorld,News,Current,Events,NewsHour,Television,Radio,Mediahttp://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/will-debris-help-narrow-search-mh370/Rebel commander says Americans on the ground in Syria calling in airstrikeshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewshourWorldPodcast/~3/Xd3VBlabkig/
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/rebel-commander-says-americans-ground-syria-calling-airstrikes/#commentsThu, 30 Jul 2015 22:30:01 +0000 PBS NewsHourhttp://www.pbs.org/newshour/?post_type=bb&p=151819

JUDY WOODRUFF: But, first, the Pentagon has denied reports that al-Qaida linked fighters have abducted several U.S.-trained Syrian rebels outside of Aleppo, Syria. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights stated that the men were taken by members of the al-Nusra Front.

In May, the U.S. military launched a program to train up to 5,000 so-called moderate rebels per year. So far, they’re nowhere near that number.

Special correspondent Jane Ferguson caught up with one of the few fighters who has been trained by the U.S. in Southern Turkey.

JANE FERGUSON: In the world outside Syria, Mohammed seems nervous. He has good reason. As a Free Syrian Army commander, he and his men are waiting to see if foreign intervention will change the direction of the war. He says he has already been trained by Americans.

MOHAMMED, Free Syrian Army Commander (through interpreter): In the beginning, they asked for our three names, our first name, our surname, and father’s name. We gave our names and pictures. There were about 100 of us. They took us to the camp. They trained us for 50 days in working with guns. The training was very good. They taught us how to use some of the weapons we weren’t familiar with, advanced weaponry, like rockets.

JANE FERGUSON: Mohammed says he has seen and spoken with Americans inside Syria who were coordinating airstrikes.

MOHAMMED (through interpreter): They were telling us, these are the lines which you shouldn’t cross, or the airstrikes will hit you.

JANE FERGUSON: Now a new deal between Turkey and the U.S. could push the Islamic State away from Turkey’s border. American airstrikes against ISIS will now be launched from Turkish soil, the idea being, if ISIS pulls back, fighters like Mohammed could then move in.

He was injured in battle and treated in hospital in Turkey, but is eager to get back to the fight.

MOHAMMED (through interpreter): I will return to my country and I will fight there, even if I am to be killed there.

JANE FERGUSON: Refugees living in Turkey could technically move back to the ISIS-free area too. Ali left Aleppo two years ago and now runs a restaurant in Turkey. He would move back to a safe area in Syria if he could.

ALI, Syrian Refugee in Turkey (through interpreter): Of course, of course. This is how every Syrian feels. Our homeland is very precious to us. The minute the war ends, even if all of Turkey belonged to me, I would go back to Syria.

JANE FERGUSON: But not everyone is confident of a return. Some refugees worry about who would replace ISIS if they leave. Just two weeks ago, Nour and her family crossed over to Turkey, fleeing ISIS-held territory. She says simply clearing an area of ISIS wouldn’t be enough to convince her to go back, unless her safety is guaranteed.

NOUR, Syrian Refugee in Turkey (through interpreter): Even apart from ISIS, there are many groups who do bad things. I’m afraid of all those groups. Many people have been killed by them.

JANE FERGUSON: There are also no guarantees people in ISIS-free areas would be safe from Syrian government warplanes.

NOUR (through interpreter): Even if ISIS are pushed out, we still wouldn’t return until the Assad regime is finished, because the Syrian regime bombs us with airstrikes. They kill many of us. We know many who died this way.

JANE FERGUSON: It’s not yet clear what kind of troops would hold the ground in any buffer zone or area that ISIS has been cleared from. Turkey has already said it would not send in ground troops, and it’s unlikely to allow Kurdish rebels to take that territory. With few options left, those who do end up replacing ISIS could be extremist Islamist fighters.

The deal between Turkey and the U.S. to step up airstrikes against ISIS over the border is being heralded as the best hope yet to take territory from the group. Holding on to that land afterwards could be an even greater challenge.

JUDY WOODRUFF: But, first, the Pentagon has denied reports that al-Qaida linked fighters have abducted several U.S.-trained Syrian rebels outside of Aleppo, Syria. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights stated that the men were taken by members of the al-Nusra Front.

In May, the U.S. military launched a program to train up to 5,000 so-called moderate rebels per year. So far, they’re nowhere near that number.

Special correspondent Jane Ferguson caught up with one of the few fighters who has been trained by the U.S. in Southern Turkey.

JANE FERGUSON: In the world outside Syria, Mohammed seems nervous. He has good reason. As a Free Syrian Army commander, he and his men are waiting to see if foreign intervention will change the direction of the war. He says he has already been trained by Americans.

MOHAMMED, Free Syrian Army Commander (through interpreter): In the beginning, they asked for our three names, our first name, our surname, and father’s name. We gave our names and pictures. There were about 100 of us. They took us to the camp. They trained us for 50 days in working with guns. The training was very good. They taught us how to use some of the weapons we weren’t familiar with, advanced weaponry, like rockets.

JANE FERGUSON: Mohammed says he has seen and spoken with Americans inside Syria who were coordinating airstrikes.

MOHAMMED (through interpreter): They were telling us, these are the lines which you shouldn’t cross, or the airstrikes will hit you.

JANE FERGUSON: Now a new deal between Turkey and the U.S. could push the Islamic State away from Turkey’s border. American airstrikes against ISIS will now be launched from Turkish soil, the idea being, if ISIS pulls back, fighters like Mohammed could then move in.

He was injured in battle and treated in hospital in Turkey, but is eager to get back to the fight.

MOHAMMED (through interpreter): I will return to my country and I will fight there, even if I am to be killed there.

JANE FERGUSON: Refugees living in Turkey could technically move back to the ISIS-free area too. Ali left Aleppo two years ago and now runs a restaurant in Turkey. He would move back to a safe area in Syria if he could.

ALI, Syrian Refugee in Turkey (through interpreter): Of course, of course. This is how every Syrian feels. Our homeland is very precious to us. The minute the war ends, even if all of Turkey belonged to me, I would go back to Syria.

JANE FERGUSON: But not everyone is confident of a return. Some refugees worry about who would replace ISIS if they leave. Just two weeks ago, Nour and her family crossed over to Turkey, fleeing ISIS-held territory. She says simply clearing an area of ISIS wouldn’t be enough to convince her to go back, unless her safety is guaranteed.

NOUR, Syrian Refugee in Turkey (through interpreter): Even apart from ISIS, there are many groups who do bad things. I’m afraid of all those groups. Many people have been killed by them.

JANE FERGUSON: There are also no guarantees people in ISIS-free areas would be safe from Syrian government warplanes.

NOUR (through interpreter): Even if ISIS are pushed out, we still wouldn’t return until the Assad regime is finished, because the Syrian regime bombs us with airstrikes. They kill many of us. We know many who died this way.

JANE FERGUSON: It’s not yet clear what kind of troops would hold the ground in any buffer zone or area that ISIS has been cleared from. Turkey has already said it would not send in ground troops, and it’s unlikely to allow Kurdish rebels to take that territory. With few options left, those who do end up replacing ISIS could be extremist Islamist fighters.

The deal between Turkey and the U.S. to step up airstrikes against ISIS over the border is being heralded as the best hope yet to take territory from the group. Holding on to that land afterwards could be an even greater challenge.

]]>http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/rebel-commander-says-americans-ground-syria-calling-airstrikes/feed/04:07Special correspondent Jane Ferguson introduces us to a Free Syrian Army commander who has received training by the U.S. The injured rebel said he's eager to rejoin the fight after U.S. and Turkey intensify their efforts against the Islamic State. no Watch Video | Listen to the Audio JUDY WOODRUFF: But, first, the Pentagon has denied reports that al-Qaida linked fighters have abducted several U.S.-trained Syrian rebels outside of Aleppo, Syria. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights stated that the PBS NewsHourWorld,News,Current,Events,NewsHour,Television,Radio,Mediahttp://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/rebel-commander-says-americans-ground-syria-calling-airstrikes/In Rio, Olympic athletes will swim in sewage-contaminated waterhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewshourWorldPodcast/~3/dG2sDTlg3aI/
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/rio-olympic-athletes-will-swim-sewage-contaminated-water/#commentsThu, 30 Jul 2015 22:15:23 +0000 PBS NewsHourhttp://www.pbs.org/newshour/?post_type=bb&p=151822

GWEN IFILL: Rio de Janeiro may sound quite appealing as the host site of next year’s Summer Olympics. But a new report out today finds athletes could be swimming and boating in waters that are highly contaminated, polluted by sewage, viruses and fecal matter.

The investigation by the Associated Press suggests athletes could become ill as they compete.

William Brangham has the story.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Rio’s polluted waters are the result of decades of neglected or nonexistent sewage infrastructure, so, in the coming weeks, as trials and test runs begin for the 2016 Olympics, some athletes will be competing in waters that contain over a million times more contamination than levels allowed in U.S. waters.

Bradley Brooks is the bureau chief for the A.P. in Brazil. He co-wrote this new investigation, and he joins me now from Rio.

So, Bradley Brooks, how did these waters get so polluted?

BRADLEY BROOKS, Associated Press: William, these waters have been polluted for decades.

And basically what happens is that Rio grew so fast since the 1960s, that the infrastructure of the sewage system simply could not keep up with that growth. So what you have are poor communities, slums, that cling to these steep hillsides and have no sewage. And so what happens is, all the sewage runs downhill and drains into the basin, bowl that is Rio de Janeiro and flows into the streams and into the oceans and into the lake.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Here in the U.S., people are familiar with the idea that when bacteria levels get to a certain level, they close the beaches. How do the levels that you found in Rio compare to what we might be familiar with here in the U.S.?

BRADLEY BROOKS: They’re astronomical. Even the bacterial levels are much, much higher than you see in the U.S.

The A.P. study went further. We searched for viruses that are specifically linked to human sewage. Those numbers that we found are off the charts, astronomical. Scientists that we spoke with in the U.S., and Brazil and in Europe said that they are numbers that they have never seen anywhere else. Here in Brazil, the difference is, however, that they don’t close the beach.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: What does this mean for the athletes? They obviously have to get into these waters. What are the chances that athletes competing in these events are going to get sick?

BRADLEY BROOKS: The U.S. expert who looked at our data, she ran a risk assessment and she said that, based on our data, there’s a 99 percent chance that athletes will be infected by one of these viruses if they ingest three teaspoons of water.

I should underscore that just because they are infected, that doesn’t mean they will get sick. If they fall ill, that depends on a number of other factors that are just unknown until they actually ingest the water.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Is there anything that an athlete can do to protect themselves? If they have to get into the water, is there anything they can do in advance to protect themselves?

BRADLEY BROOKS: Well, there’s no protective gear, per se.

Some people have suggested wearing masks, so that they don’t have to inhale the water, inhale droplets. One of our experts in the U.S. suggested that the athletes show up in Rio much earlier than they expected to simply expose themselves to the viruses and, in essence, to make themselves get sick several times, so that, by the time the Olympics rolls around, they might not be sick, they might have built up immunities.

But most health experts say that that’s impossible. It takes years and years to build up immunities to these viruses.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Has the International Olympic Committee said anything about your findings? Are they going to do anything about this?

BRADLEY BROOKS: The IOC and Brazilian officials told the Associated Press today that they will not change the way that they evaluate the health of the water, meaning they will continue only to look for bacteria.

They will not look for viruses, despite the fact that our study showed astronomical numbers, levels of viruses in the water. In addition to that, the Brazilian officials blasted out at the AP. They questioned our data. They questioned the integrity of the scientists who carried out our data, and they questioned the university that he is attached to.

They did all that, instead of simply answering the question of whether or not they’re going to look into this question of viruses in the water.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: All right, Bradley Brooks of the Associated Press, thanks so much for being here.

GWEN IFILL: Rio de Janeiro may sound quite appealing as the host site of next year’s Summer Olympics. But a new report out today finds athletes could be swimming and boating in waters that are highly contaminated, polluted by sewage, viruses and fecal matter.

The investigation by the Associated Press suggests athletes could become ill as they compete.

William Brangham has the story.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Rio’s polluted waters are the result of decades of neglected or nonexistent sewage infrastructure, so, in the coming weeks, as trials and test runs begin for the 2016 Olympics, some athletes will be competing in waters that contain over a million times more contamination than levels allowed in U.S. waters.

Bradley Brooks is the bureau chief for the A.P. in Brazil. He co-wrote this new investigation, and he joins me now from Rio.

So, Bradley Brooks, how did these waters get so polluted?

BRADLEY BROOKS, Associated Press: William, these waters have been polluted for decades.

And basically what happens is that Rio grew so fast since the 1960s, that the infrastructure of the sewage system simply could not keep up with that growth. So what you have are poor communities, slums, that cling to these steep hillsides and have no sewage. And so what happens is, all the sewage runs downhill and drains into the basin, bowl that is Rio de Janeiro and flows into the streams and into the oceans and into the lake.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Here in the U.S., people are familiar with the idea that when bacteria levels get to a certain level, they close the beaches. How do the levels that you found in Rio compare to what we might be familiar with here in the U.S.?

BRADLEY BROOKS: They’re astronomical. Even the bacterial levels are much, much higher than you see in the U.S.

The A.P. study went further. We searched for viruses that are specifically linked to human sewage. Those numbers that we found are off the charts, astronomical. Scientists that we spoke with in the U.S., and Brazil and in Europe said that they are numbers that they have never seen anywhere else. Here in Brazil, the difference is, however, that they don’t close the beach.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: What does this mean for the athletes? They obviously have to get into these waters. What are the chances that athletes competing in these events are going to get sick?

BRADLEY BROOKS: The U.S. expert who looked at our data, she ran a risk assessment and she said that, based on our data, there’s a 99 percent chance that athletes will be infected by one of these viruses if they ingest three teaspoons of water.

I should underscore that just because they are infected, that doesn’t mean they will get sick. If they fall ill, that depends on a number of other factors that are just unknown until they actually ingest the water.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Is there anything that an athlete can do to protect themselves? If they have to get into the water, is there anything they can do in advance to protect themselves?

BRADLEY BROOKS: Well, there’s no protective gear, per se.

Some people have suggested wearing masks, so that they don’t have to inhale the water, inhale droplets. One of our experts in the U.S. suggested that the athletes show up in Rio much earlier than they expected to simply expose themselves to the viruses and, in essence, to make themselves get sick several times, so that, by the time the Olympics rolls around, they might not be sick, they might have built up immunities.

But most health experts say that that’s impossible. It takes years and years to build up immunities to these viruses.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Has the International Olympic Committee said anything about your findings? Are they going to do anything about this?

BRADLEY BROOKS: The IOC and Brazilian officials told the Associated Press today that they will not change the way that they evaluate the health of the water, meaning they will continue only to look for bacteria.

They will not look for viruses, despite the fact that our study showed astronomical numbers, levels of viruses in the water. In addition to that, the Brazilian officials blasted out at the AP. They questioned our data. They questioned the integrity of the scientists who carried out our data, and they questioned the university that he is attached to.

They did all that, instead of simply answering the question of whether or not they’re going to look into this question of viruses in the water.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: All right, Bradley Brooks of the Associated Press, thanks so much for being here.

]]>http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/rio-olympic-athletes-will-swim-sewage-contaminated-water/feed/04:21In the coming weeks, trials and test runs begin for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. An investigation by the Associated Press has revealed that athletes will be swimming and boating in waters dangerously contaminated by sewage, viruses and fecal matter. William Brangham learns more from the AP’s Bradley Brooks.no Watch Video | Listen to the Audio GWEN IFILL: Rio de Janeiro may sound quite appealing as the host site of next year&#8217;s Summer Olympics. But a new report out today finds athletes could be swimming and boating in waters that are highly contaminated, PBS NewsHourWorld,News,Current,Events,NewsHour,Television,Radio,Mediahttp://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/rio-olympic-athletes-will-swim-sewage-contaminated-water/News Wrap: Turkey strikes new round of Kurdish targetshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewshourWorldPodcast/~3/PypEKZb6sx4/
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/news-wrap-turkey-strikes-new-round-kurdish-targets/#commentsWed, 29 Jul 2015 22:45:47 +0000 PBS NewsHourhttp://www.pbs.org/newshour/?post_type=bb&p=151684

JUDY WOODRUFF: In other news, the Turkish military unleashed a powerful new barrage of airstrikes on Kurdish rebel targets in Northern Iraq overnight.

They pounded Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, sites in six areas. The pro-Kurdish political opposition demanded an end to the attacks today, charging a political motive by President Erdogan. But in Ankara, Turkey’s prime minister warned that peace will only be achieved if rebel fighters stop all their attacks.

PRIME MINISTER AHMET DAVUTOGLU, Turky (through interpreter): Our might is enough to simultaneously fight not just three terror organizations, but 33. And we will show that might. Within this framework, we will continue to take our precautions and this process will continue until terrorism elements lay down their arms and until they get out of Turkey and until public order is absolutely restored.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Also today, Turkey’s cabinet officially approved an agreement to allow the U.S.-led military coalition to use its Incirlik Air Base to launch strikes on the Islamic State.

GWEN IFILL: In Washington, the military’s top brass joined the secretary of state on Capitol Hill to defend the Obama administration’s nuclear deal with Iran.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Republican John McCain insisted he can’t make an informed decision without all the facts, and that includes documents Iran negotiated with international nuclear inspectors.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), Arizona: We agree, all of us, I believe, that we should see those instruments of verification. Otherwise, how can we make a judgment as to these — this agreement can be enforced and verified with a country that has a long record of cheating?

GWEN IFILL: The nuclear deal’s lead negotiator, Secretary of State John Kerry, again played down any talk of secret agreements between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency.

JOHN KERRY, Secretary of State: We have relied on the IAEA for years and years. And, historically, the IAEA always creates what’s called a Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement, a CSA, which they negotiate with a country. And we don’t get that exact — it’s not shared with the world.

And their reasons that it’s confidential have to do with what you can get out of that country, but we do get briefed on it.

GWEN IFILL: After a 60-day review period, the House and Senate will vote on the Iran nuclear agreement in September.

JUDY WOODRUFF: The House of Representatives late today approved a three-month funding extension of the Federal Highway Trust Fund. The fund, which funnels federal money towards bridge, road and transit projects is due to run out of money at midnight this Friday. The Senate plans on taking up the $8 billion bill later this week.

GWEN IFILL: Democratic Congressman Chaka Fattah was indicted today on federal racketeering and bribery charges. The longtime Philadelphia congressman allegedly paid off a campaign loan with charitable donations and used campaign money to pay down his son’s student loan debt. Charges ranged from bribery to bank and mail fraud to money laundering. In a statement, Fattah said he’s never participated in any illegal activity or misused taxpayer dollars.

JUDY WOODRUFF: The Federal Reserve Board opted today to keep interest rates unchanged, for now. In its latest statement, the Central Bank said it’s still waiting to see further economic recovery and higher inflation before it will raise them. Today’s Fed statement caused stocks to close higher on Wall Street. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 121 points to close at 17751. The Nasdaq rose 22 points and the S&P 500 added 15.

GWEN IFILL: Outrage grew around the world today over the death of a famous lion in Africa. Minnesota dentist Walter J. Palmer paid Zimbabwe hunter Theo Bronkhorst to go on the trophy hunting trip that ultimately led to the lion’s killing.

Bronkhorst left a courtroom in Zimbabwe with his lawyer today, charged with failing to prevent an American from unlawfully killing Cecil, the country’s most well-known lion.

QUESTION: How do you feel?

MAN: Terrible.

GWEN IFILL: Earlier this month, the beloved Cecil was allegedly lured out of his sanctuary at a national park into unprotected territory, where he was shot with a bow and an arrow. The man behind the bow and arrow was American Walter J. Palmer, who has killed wild animals before, like this lion in 2008. He admits he killed Cecil, but said he thought the hunt was legal.

Cecil, one of the park’s oldest lions, didn’t die right away, but he had to be shot days later, when he was also beheaded.

PRINCE MUPAZVIRIHO, Zimbabwe Environment Ministry Permanent Secretary: If we had not been having strong conservation efforts in terms of protecting the animals from poachers, it wouldn’t have gone to that age of 13 years.

GWEN IFILL: Amid a social media backlash, Palmer is now being sought on poaching charges, and the public has turned his dental practice in Minnesota into a makeshift memorial to the dead lion. For now, the office remains closed.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service pledged today to assist officials in Zimbabwe in whatever manner is requested.

JUDY WOODRUFF: New England Patriots Quarterback Tom Brady vowed to fight his four-game suspension by the National Football League for his involvement in deflating footballs during last year’s playoff run.

In a statement, Brady also denied allegations made by the NFL that he destroyed his cell phone to hide information. The NFL Players Association filed a motion in federal court in Minnesota today challenging the league’s decision to uphold Brady’s suspension.

JUDY WOODRUFF: In other news, the Turkish military unleashed a powerful new barrage of airstrikes on Kurdish rebel targets in Northern Iraq overnight.

They pounded Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, sites in six areas. The pro-Kurdish political opposition demanded an end to the attacks today, charging a political motive by President Erdogan. But in Ankara, Turkey’s prime minister warned that peace will only be achieved if rebel fighters stop all their attacks.

PRIME MINISTER AHMET DAVUTOGLU, Turky (through interpreter): Our might is enough to simultaneously fight not just three terror organizations, but 33. And we will show that might. Within this framework, we will continue to take our precautions and this process will continue until terrorism elements lay down their arms and until they get out of Turkey and until public order is absolutely restored.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Also today, Turkey’s cabinet officially approved an agreement to allow the U.S.-led military coalition to use its Incirlik Air Base to launch strikes on the Islamic State.

GWEN IFILL: In Washington, the military’s top brass joined the secretary of state on Capitol Hill to defend the Obama administration’s nuclear deal with Iran.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Republican John McCain insisted he can’t make an informed decision without all the facts, and that includes documents Iran negotiated with international nuclear inspectors.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), Arizona: We agree, all of us, I believe, that we should see those instruments of verification. Otherwise, how can we make a judgment as to these — this agreement can be enforced and verified with a country that has a long record of cheating?

GWEN IFILL: The nuclear deal’s lead negotiator, Secretary of State John Kerry, again played down any talk of secret agreements between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency.

JOHN KERRY, Secretary of State: We have relied on the IAEA for years and years. And, historically, the IAEA always creates what’s called a Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement, a CSA, which they negotiate with a country. And we don’t get that exact — it’s not shared with the world.

And their reasons that it’s confidential have to do with what you can get out of that country, but we do get briefed on it.

GWEN IFILL: After a 60-day review period, the House and Senate will vote on the Iran nuclear agreement in September.

JUDY WOODRUFF: The House of Representatives late today approved a three-month funding extension of the Federal Highway Trust Fund. The fund, which funnels federal money towards bridge, road and transit projects is due to run out of money at midnight this Friday. The Senate plans on taking up the $8 billion bill later this week.

GWEN IFILL: Democratic Congressman Chaka Fattah was indicted today on federal racketeering and bribery charges. The longtime Philadelphia congressman allegedly paid off a campaign loan with charitable donations and used campaign money to pay down his son’s student loan debt. Charges ranged from bribery to bank and mail fraud to money laundering. In a statement, Fattah said he’s never participated in any illegal activity or misused taxpayer dollars.

JUDY WOODRUFF: The Federal Reserve Board opted today to keep interest rates unchanged, for now. In its latest statement, the Central Bank said it’s still waiting to see further economic recovery and higher inflation before it will raise them. Today’s Fed statement caused stocks to close higher on Wall Street. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 121 points to close at 17751. The Nasdaq rose 22 points and the S&P 500 added 15.

GWEN IFILL: Outrage grew around the world today over the death of a famous lion in Africa. Minnesota dentist Walter J. Palmer paid Zimbabwe hunter Theo Bronkhorst to go on the trophy hunting trip that ultimately led to the lion’s killing.

Bronkhorst left a courtroom in Zimbabwe with his lawyer today, charged with failing to prevent an American from unlawfully killing Cecil, the country’s most well-known lion.

QUESTION: How do you feel?

MAN: Terrible.

GWEN IFILL: Earlier this month, the beloved Cecil was allegedly lured out of his sanctuary at a national park into unprotected territory, where he was shot with a bow and an arrow. The man behind the bow and arrow was American Walter J. Palmer, who has killed wild animals before, like this lion in 2008. He admits he killed Cecil, but said he thought the hunt was legal.

Cecil, one of the park’s oldest lions, didn’t die right away, but he had to be shot days later, when he was also beheaded.

PRINCE MUPAZVIRIHO, Zimbabwe Environment Ministry Permanent Secretary: If we had not been having strong conservation efforts in terms of protecting the animals from poachers, it wouldn’t have gone to that age of 13 years.

GWEN IFILL: Amid a social media backlash, Palmer is now being sought on poaching charges, and the public has turned his dental practice in Minnesota into a makeshift memorial to the dead lion. For now, the office remains closed.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service pledged today to assist officials in Zimbabwe in whatever manner is requested.

JUDY WOODRUFF: New England Patriots Quarterback Tom Brady vowed to fight his four-game suspension by the National Football League for his involvement in deflating footballs during last year’s playoff run.

In a statement, Brady also denied allegations made by the NFL that he destroyed his cell phone to hide information. The NFL Players Association filed a motion in federal court in Minnesota today challenging the league’s decision to uphold Brady’s suspension.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Now to the future of Afghanistan after a longtime enemy of the United States is reportedly dead.

Earlier today, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s intelligence agency confirmed the death of Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar. According to the agency, the reclusive figure died two years ago at a hospital in Pakistan. So far, the Taliban has not publicly commented on the claim. But as recently as two weeks ago, the group was issuing statements in his name. He had not been seen publicly since 2001.

Jessica Donati is covering the story for the Reuters news agency. She’s in Kabul. And I spoke to her a short time ago.

Jessica Donati, welcome.

So, tell us more about what these reports say and how solid are they?

JESSICA DONATI, Reuters: Well, we’re not getting a lot out of the reports, other than that the Afghan intelligence agency has said that they confirmed that Mullah Omar is dead.

And we have the Afghan government saying that they have reason to believe that the reports are credible. But from the Taliban side, we don’t have anything.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And in terms of he died two years ago in a hospital in Pakistan, any more information than that about why he died, how he died?

JESSICA DONATI: There isn’t a lot of detail.

We have been speaking to some commanders who suggest that he might have died of tuberculosis. And there are different rumors about different illnesses that he may have had. And it’s not clear where he died or what he died of. I think the question really is, why is it coming out now, about two days before there was supposed to be another round of peace talks scheduled to take place somewhere on Friday?

So the question is, why are the reports now? Because it’s possible that they would weaken — make the Taliban appear more weak. So there are a lot of questions being asked as to who is behind these reports.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Is there a theory about who is behind them? And you’re saying the Taliban would be weakened because their leader would be gone?

JESSICA DONATI: Yes, and that would suggest that there is more of a split, which would put them in a more difficult position if they were going to be bargaining with the Afghan government.

On the one side, there seems to be a group of commanders who are in favor of going ahead with the peace talks. And on the other side, there are commanders who are saying, well, look, the paramilitary foreign forces have left and we’re making progress this year in the fighting season. So, this is not a good time for us to be negotiating.

So it is not really a good position for them to be in without leadership. And that could be why they aren’t commenting either way.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So how strong is the Taliban seen to be right now in Afghanistan?

JESSICA DONATI: At the moment, they have — they’re coming out stronger this year than last year.

First of all, the Afghan security forces are on their own. The — most foreign forces have left and there is only a limited amount of air support, along with the training mission. So the casualty rates are higher. They have taken over tens of villages in the north. They have captured a couple of district centers which are quite symbolic.

They have threatened a major city in the north, although they haven’t really come close to recapturing it. So they are making progress. On the other hand, they also have to face the fact that there is an Islamic State threat that is rising and is getting attention and perhaps competing for young fighters.

So, this might not be such a bad time for them to negotiate.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And how far along are the talks between the Taliban and the Afghanistan government seen to be?

JESSICA DONATI: At the moment, we aren’t even entirely clear how official these talks are. There were talks taking place in early July between the Afghan government, the Pakistani government. There were American and Chinese officials present and several Taliban.

But it is not clear who these Taliban leaders were representing and whether they had authority from leadership — the leadership. So we have statements from the Afghan and the Pakistani side saying that these were the first round of official peace talks and that the next time, they would be talking about an agenda and a possible cease-fire.

But the Taliban never said anything about whether these talks were official or not. So you could say that they’re not very far ahead at all.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, one more twist in, I guess, an endless set of twists and turns.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Now to the future of Afghanistan after a longtime enemy of the United States is reportedly dead.

Earlier today, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s intelligence agency confirmed the death of Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar. According to the agency, the reclusive figure died two years ago at a hospital in Pakistan. So far, the Taliban has not publicly commented on the claim. But as recently as two weeks ago, the group was issuing statements in his name. He had not been seen publicly since 2001.

Jessica Donati is covering the story for the Reuters news agency. She’s in Kabul. And I spoke to her a short time ago.

Jessica Donati, welcome.

So, tell us more about what these reports say and how solid are they?

JESSICA DONATI, Reuters: Well, we’re not getting a lot out of the reports, other than that the Afghan intelligence agency has said that they confirmed that Mullah Omar is dead.

And we have the Afghan government saying that they have reason to believe that the reports are credible. But from the Taliban side, we don’t have anything.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And in terms of he died two years ago in a hospital in Pakistan, any more information than that about why he died, how he died?

JESSICA DONATI: There isn’t a lot of detail.

We have been speaking to some commanders who suggest that he might have died of tuberculosis. And there are different rumors about different illnesses that he may have had. And it’s not clear where he died or what he died of. I think the question really is, why is it coming out now, about two days before there was supposed to be another round of peace talks scheduled to take place somewhere on Friday?

So the question is, why are the reports now? Because it’s possible that they would weaken — make the Taliban appear more weak. So there are a lot of questions being asked as to who is behind these reports.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Is there a theory about who is behind them? And you’re saying the Taliban would be weakened because their leader would be gone?

JESSICA DONATI: Yes, and that would suggest that there is more of a split, which would put them in a more difficult position if they were going to be bargaining with the Afghan government.

On the one side, there seems to be a group of commanders who are in favor of going ahead with the peace talks. And on the other side, there are commanders who are saying, well, look, the paramilitary foreign forces have left and we’re making progress this year in the fighting season. So, this is not a good time for us to be negotiating.

So it is not really a good position for them to be in without leadership. And that could be why they aren’t commenting either way.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So how strong is the Taliban seen to be right now in Afghanistan?

JESSICA DONATI: At the moment, they have — they’re coming out stronger this year than last year.

First of all, the Afghan security forces are on their own. The — most foreign forces have left and there is only a limited amount of air support, along with the training mission. So the casualty rates are higher. They have taken over tens of villages in the north. They have captured a couple of district centers which are quite symbolic.

They have threatened a major city in the north, although they haven’t really come close to recapturing it. So they are making progress. On the other hand, they also have to face the fact that there is an Islamic State threat that is rising and is getting attention and perhaps competing for young fighters.

So, this might not be such a bad time for them to negotiate.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And how far along are the talks between the Taliban and the Afghanistan government seen to be?

JESSICA DONATI: At the moment, we aren’t even entirely clear how official these talks are. There were talks taking place in early July between the Afghan government, the Pakistani government. There were American and Chinese officials present and several Taliban.

But it is not clear who these Taliban leaders were representing and whether they had authority from leadership — the leadership. So we have statements from the Afghan and the Pakistani side saying that these were the first round of official peace talks and that the next time, they would be talking about an agenda and a possible cease-fire.

But the Taliban never said anything about whether these talks were official or not. So you could say that they’re not very far ahead at all.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, one more twist in, I guess, an endless set of twists and turns.

]]>http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/word-mullah-omars-death-coming-now/feed/004:37The Taliban's supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar was confirmed dead by a spokesman for Afghanistan's intelligence agency, which claims that he died two years ago at a hospital in Pakistan. Although Omar has not been seen publicly since 2001, the Taliban was issuing statements in his name as recently as two weeks ago. Judy Woodruff talks with Jessica Donati of Reuters.no Watch Video | Listen to the Audio JUDY WOODRUFF: Now to the future of Afghanistan after a longtime enemy of the United States is reportedly dead. Earlier today, a spokesman for Afghanistan&#8217;s intelligence agency confirmed the death of Taliban suprem PBS NewsHourWorld,News,Current,Events,NewsHour,Television,Radio,Mediahttp://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/word-mullah-omars-death-coming-now/NATO steps up Ukraine mission in response to Russiahttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewshourWorldPodcast/~3/myr_1Dg7Zpk/
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/nato-steps-ukraine-mission-response-russia/#commentsWed, 29 Jul 2015 22:35:42 +0000 PBS NewsHourhttp://www.pbs.org/newshour/?post_type=bb&p=151701

GWEN IFILL: The role of the U.S. military in Europe has shifted since the start of the Ukraine conflict. Along with other NATO countries, American forces now have a sizable presence in the region.

Today, the dispute was once again on view, at its center, Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

Just over a year ago, Malaysia Airlines Flight MH-17 crashed in a field in Eastern Ukraine. All 298 people on board, most of them Dutch, were killed. The government in Kiev and in many other Western countries said Russian-backed separatists shot down the plane with a surface-to-air missile. It’s a claim Moscow still denies.

Now Malaysia, along with the Netherlands, Ukraine and others, wants to set up an international criminal tribunal to prosecute those responsible.

LIOW TONG LAI, Malaysian Transport Minister: An international tribunal will be best place to deliver justice to the families of all victims.

GWEN IFILL: The U.N. Security Council took up the proposal this afternoon, but Russia vetoed it.

VITALY CHURKIN, Russian Ambassador to United Nations (through interpreter): What are the grounds to be assured of the impartiality of such an investigation? Can it resist the aggressive propaganda backdrop in the media?

GWEN IFILL: There have been 15 months of heavy fighting in Eastern Ukraine, known as the Donbass, between separatists backed by Russia and the kin military. More than 6,500 people have been killed.

The fighting there followed Russia’s March 2014 annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea. But even beyond that conflict, there’s been a spike this year in Russian air incursions near NATO countries, including the United States. Last month, American fighter jets intercepted Russian TU-95 bombers off the coasts of Alaska and California.

In response to Russia’s actions, NATO countries have stepped up military exercises in Ukraine and across the Baltic states. In a visit to Estonia last fall, President Obama made the U.S. commitment clear.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: An attack on one is an attack on all. So, if, in such a moment, you ever ask again, who will come to help, you will know the answer, the NATO Alliance, including the armed forces of the United States of America, right here, present, now.
GWEN IFILL: The U.S. has been training Ukrainian forces. So far, it’s limited to instructing national guard units, but the State Department said last week that the mission will be expanded to include regular military forces later this year.

The man overseeing U.S. operations in Europe and serving as NATO supreme allied commander is General Philip Breedlove. He visited Ukraine last week. And I spoke with him today at the Pentagon.

GWEN IFILL: The role of the U.S. military in Europe has shifted since the start of the Ukraine conflict. Along with other NATO countries, American forces now have a sizable presence in the region.

Today, the dispute was once again on view, at its center, Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

Just over a year ago, Malaysia Airlines Flight MH-17 crashed in a field in Eastern Ukraine. All 298 people on board, most of them Dutch, were killed. The government in Kiev and in many other Western countries said Russian-backed separatists shot down the plane with a surface-to-air missile. It’s a claim Moscow still denies.

Now Malaysia, along with the Netherlands, Ukraine and others, wants to set up an international criminal tribunal to prosecute those responsible.

LIOW TONG LAI, Malaysian Transport Minister: An international tribunal will be best place to deliver justice to the families of all victims.

GWEN IFILL: The U.N. Security Council took up the proposal this afternoon, but Russia vetoed it.

VITALY CHURKIN, Russian Ambassador to United Nations (through interpreter): What are the grounds to be assured of the impartiality of such an investigation? Can it resist the aggressive propaganda backdrop in the media?

GWEN IFILL: There have been 15 months of heavy fighting in Eastern Ukraine, known as the Donbass, between separatists backed by Russia and the kin military. More than 6,500 people have been killed.

The fighting there followed Russia’s March 2014 annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea. But even beyond that conflict, there’s been a spike this year in Russian air incursions near NATO countries, including the United States. Last month, American fighter jets intercepted Russian TU-95 bombers off the coasts of Alaska and California.

In response to Russia’s actions, NATO countries have stepped up military exercises in Ukraine and across the Baltic states. In a visit to Estonia last fall, President Obama made the U.S. commitment clear.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: An attack on one is an attack on all. So, if, in such a moment, you ever ask again, who will come to help, you will know the answer, the NATO Alliance, including the armed forces of the United States of America, right here, present, now.
GWEN IFILL: The U.S. has been training Ukrainian forces. So far, it’s limited to instructing national guard units, but the State Department said last week that the mission will be expanded to include regular military forces later this year.

The man overseeing U.S. operations in Europe and serving as NATO supreme allied commander is General Philip Breedlove. He visited Ukraine last week. And I spoke with him today at the Pentagon.

]]>http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/nato-steps-ukraine-mission-response-russia/feed/002:43There's been a spike this year in Russian air incursions near NATO countries, including the U.S. NATO countries have stepped up military exercises in Ukraine and across the Baltic states in response to Russia's actions. Gwen Ifill reports.no Watch Video | Listen to the Audio GWEN IFILL: The role of the U.S. military in Europe has shifted since the start of the Ukraine conflict. Along with other NATO countries, American forces now have a sizable presence in the region. Today, the dispute was PBS NewsHourWorld,News,Current,Events,NewsHour,Television,Radio,Mediahttp://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/nato-steps-ukraine-mission-response-russia/NATO Commander: Russia’s use of force in Europe is a major threathttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewshourWorldPodcast/~3/1kc2etKcB9E/
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/nato-commander-russias-use-force-europe-major-threat/#commentsWed, 29 Jul 2015 22:30:43 +0000 PBS NewsHourhttp://www.pbs.org/newshour/?post_type=bb&p=151702

GWEN IFILL: I want to start by talking about Turkey. How significant is it that Turkey has allowed us to start using Incirlik for a basing to attack ISIS?

GEN. PHILIP BREEDLOVE: Those things that we are working at now to use bases like Incirlik and Diyarbakir, those will be very important to our ability to prosecute a joint campaign with Turkey as a part of our coalition.

GWEN IFILL: How far does that buffer zone go and how far do we go into it?

GEN. PHILIP BREEDLOVE: We’re not creating any specific zone.

What we’re talking about is bringing Turkey into an arrangement where, as a part of the coalition, they cooperate in our counter-ISIL campaign in the north. And that’s the real key to this.

GWEN IFILL: So, it’s not a no-fly zone, per se, is what you are saying?

GEN. PHILIP BREEDLOVE: That’s correct.

GWEN IFILL: I want to take you to Ukraine, especially Russia’s role. The new incoming nominee to be — for Joint Chiefs of Staff, Joe Dunford, said at a congressional hearing last week that he saw Russia as our chief global threat. Is that something you agree with?

GEN. PHILIP BREEDLOVE: I have testified to the same thing in the past.

GWEN IFILL: Why?

GEN. PHILIP BREEDLOVE: Well, clearly, there are lots of threats out there, for instance, ISIL.

But I think what you hear from numerous leaders is that Russia is a different case. This is a nation that for 20 years we have tried to make a partner. And in the last few years, we have seen that they’re on a different path. So now we have a nation that has used force to change internationally recognized boundaries. Russia continues to occupy Crimea.

Russian forces now are in the Donbass in Eastern Ukraine. So this nation has used force to change international boundaries. And this is a nation that possesses a pretty vast nuclear inventory, and talks about the use of that inventory very openly in the past. And so what I think you see being reflected is that we see a revanchist Russia that has taken a new path towards what the security arrangements in Europe are like and how they are employed.

And they talk about using, as a matter of course, nuclear weapons. For that reason, these senior leaders, I believe, see that as a major threat.

GWEN IFILL: Secretary Kerry has not said that. And I wonder if the distinction there is between the diplomatic approach to dealing with Russia on things like Iran and the military concerns.

GEN. PHILIP BREEDLOVE: So, Russia can and we hope in the future will be a great partner. There are many places where our needs and requirements match.

But, again, in Europe, they have established a pattern now, Georgia, Transnistria, Crimea, Donbass, where force is a matter of course. And that’s not what we look for in partners in Europe.

GWEN IFILL: So NATO has talked about providing training and artillery and some sort of support against this force you describe, this Russian bear on the border. Is that enough?
GEN. PHILIP BREEDLOVE: Well, NATO nations are offering some assistance to Ukraine, as is the United States. Many nations now are coming along to be a part of helping Ukraine to defend themselves. They have the right to defend themselves.
GWEN IFILL: But is it enough?

GEN. PHILIP BREEDLOVE: I think that question is yet to be determined.

We believe that there is a diplomatic and a political solution. So when you ask, is it enough, the question is, is it enough to set the conditions so that we can get to a political and a diplomatic solution?
GWEN IFILL: What about the Baltics? There is a lot of nervousness that Russia is going to expand its view of aggression in that direction as well, and they will be entirely unable to defend themselves.
GEN. PHILIP BREEDLOVE: Both NATO, as an alliance, and the United States have come to great measures of assurance for our Baltic nations.

We have U.S. soldiers alongside British and other soldiers inside of these countries now, exercising, doing training, to assure those allies that NATO is there and will be there. I was privileged to sit in the room at Wales when the leaders of 28 nations, including our president, were rock-solid on Article V, collective defense. And that includes the Baltics.

And I think that Mr. Putin understands that NATO is different.

GWEN IFILL: There is a lot of nervousness, however, that this option, if this doesn’t take hold, is war.

GEN. PHILIP BREEDLOVE: Well, the best way not to have a war is to be prepared for war. So, we’re in there now, training their soldiers.

As you know, we are looking at and have decided to preposition stops forward. We have heavy equipment that we train with in these nations now. And so we need to be prepared, so that we can avoid.

GWEN IFILL: Is there a line between preparation and provocation?
GEN. PHILIP BREEDLOVE: Absolutely. I believe there is.

We do defensive measures, and in, I think, very easily defined defensive stances in our forward bases. We’re not putting big forces into the Baltics. Right now, there is a company of U.S. soldiers in each of the three Baltic states. That is well below a proportional issue.
GWEN IFILL: If it is possible for there to be a diplomatic or a political solution to head off any future conflict, what would that look like?

GEN. PHILIP BREEDLOVE: We always talk about a European land mass whole, free, and at peace.

To get to that, we need to have a partner in Russia, not someone that we are competing with. The Russian energy…

GWEN IFILL: Do you see a partnership that I don’t see?

GEN. PHILIP BREEDLOVE: No, no, I’m saying we have to have one in the future.

GWEN IFILL: Right.

GEN. PHILIP BREEDLOVE: If we really believe we’re going to get to whole, free, and at peace and prosperous, then we need a partner in Russia.
GWEN IFILL: Well, give me an example of one way to get there, especially if the person who has to be your partner is Vladimir Putin, who doesn’t show any indication, other than being helpful at the Iran nuclear talks, of being the partner you envision.

GEN. PHILIP BREEDLOVE: So first, it’s communication. We need to reestablish those lines of communication.

You have seen our secretary of state, undersecretary of state reaching out in several forums. Mil-to-mil communications need to become routine again. They are not routine now, where they were once before, communication first.

GWEN IFILL: I guess I hear what you are saying, but I don’t see how you get there.

GEN. PHILIP BREEDLOVE: Its’ not going to be an easy road. And it’s not going to happen quickly. This business with Russia is a long-term thing.

I have said in testimony in other places that this is global, not regional. And it is long-term, not short-term. But we have to start down the path.

GWEN IFILL: Assuming for a moment there is a diplomatic-to-diplomatic impasse or president-to-president impasse, is there a military-to-military way of forging that kind of agreement?
GEN. PHILIP BREEDLOVE: There is.

It is important also that, even if our countries are not getting along, when you are flying airplanes in close vicinity, when you are sailing ships in close vicinity, when you have soldiers on the ground exercising sometimes just on the other side of borders, military men and women have to be able to communicate in a very matter-of-fact way to preclude anything ugly from happening.

GWEN IFILL: I want to start by talking about Turkey. How significant is it that Turkey has allowed us to start using Incirlik for a basing to attack ISIS?

GEN. PHILIP BREEDLOVE: Those things that we are working at now to use bases like Incirlik and Diyarbakir, those will be very important to our ability to prosecute a joint campaign with Turkey as a part of our coalition.

GWEN IFILL: How far does that buffer zone go and how far do we go into it?

GEN. PHILIP BREEDLOVE: We’re not creating any specific zone.

What we’re talking about is bringing Turkey into an arrangement where, as a part of the coalition, they cooperate in our counter-ISIL campaign in the north. And that’s the real key to this.

GWEN IFILL: So, it’s not a no-fly zone, per se, is what you are saying?

GEN. PHILIP BREEDLOVE: That’s correct.

GWEN IFILL: I want to take you to Ukraine, especially Russia’s role. The new incoming nominee to be — for Joint Chiefs of Staff, Joe Dunford, said at a congressional hearing last week that he saw Russia as our chief global threat. Is that something you agree with?

GEN. PHILIP BREEDLOVE: I have testified to the same thing in the past.

GWEN IFILL: Why?

GEN. PHILIP BREEDLOVE: Well, clearly, there are lots of threats out there, for instance, ISIL.

But I think what you hear from numerous leaders is that Russia is a different case. This is a nation that for 20 years we have tried to make a partner. And in the last few years, we have seen that they’re on a different path. So now we have a nation that has used force to change internationally recognized boundaries. Russia continues to occupy Crimea.

Russian forces now are in the Donbass in Eastern Ukraine. So this nation has used force to change international boundaries. And this is a nation that possesses a pretty vast nuclear inventory, and talks about the use of that inventory very openly in the past. And so what I think you see being reflected is that we see a revanchist Russia that has taken a new path towards what the security arrangements in Europe are like and how they are employed.

And they talk about using, as a matter of course, nuclear weapons. For that reason, these senior leaders, I believe, see that as a major threat.

GWEN IFILL: Secretary Kerry has not said that. And I wonder if the distinction there is between the diplomatic approach to dealing with Russia on things like Iran and the military concerns.

GEN. PHILIP BREEDLOVE: So, Russia can and we hope in the future will be a great partner. There are many places where our needs and requirements match.

But, again, in Europe, they have established a pattern now, Georgia, Transnistria, Crimea, Donbass, where force is a matter of course. And that’s not what we look for in partners in Europe.

GWEN IFILL: So NATO has talked about providing training and artillery and some sort of support against this force you describe, this Russian bear on the border. Is that enough?
GEN. PHILIP BREEDLOVE: Well, NATO nations are offering some assistance to Ukraine, as is the United States. Many nations now are coming along to be a part of helping Ukraine to defend themselves. They have the right to defend themselves.
GWEN IFILL: But is it enough?

GEN. PHILIP BREEDLOVE: I think that question is yet to be determined.

We believe that there is a diplomatic and a political solution. So when you ask, is it enough, the question is, is it enough to set the conditions so that we can get to a political and a diplomatic solution?
GWEN IFILL: What about the Baltics? There is a lot of nervousness that Russia is going to expand its view of aggression in that direction as well, and they will be entirely unable to defend themselves.
GEN. PHILIP BREEDLOVE: Both NATO, as an alliance, and the United States have come to great measures of assurance for our Baltic nations.

We have U.S. soldiers alongside British and other soldiers inside of these countries now, exercising, doing training, to assure those allies that NATO is there and will be there. I was privileged to sit in the room at Wales when the leaders of 28 nations, including our president, were rock-solid on Article V, collective defense. And that includes the Baltics.

And I think that Mr. Putin understands that NATO is different.

GWEN IFILL: There is a lot of nervousness, however, that this option, if this doesn’t take hold, is war.

GEN. PHILIP BREEDLOVE: Well, the best way not to have a war is to be prepared for war. So, we’re in there now, training their soldiers.

As you know, we are looking at and have decided to preposition stops forward. We have heavy equipment that we train with in these nations now. And so we need to be prepared, so that we can avoid.

GWEN IFILL: Is there a line between preparation and provocation?
GEN. PHILIP BREEDLOVE: Absolutely. I believe there is.

We do defensive measures, and in, I think, very easily defined defensive stances in our forward bases. We’re not putting big forces into the Baltics. Right now, there is a company of U.S. soldiers in each of the three Baltic states. That is well below a proportional issue.
GWEN IFILL: If it is possible for there to be a diplomatic or a political solution to head off any future conflict, what would that look like?

GEN. PHILIP BREEDLOVE: We always talk about a European land mass whole, free, and at peace.

To get to that, we need to have a partner in Russia, not someone that we are competing with. The Russian energy…

GWEN IFILL: Do you see a partnership that I don’t see?

GEN. PHILIP BREEDLOVE: No, no, I’m saying we have to have one in the future.

GWEN IFILL: Right.

GEN. PHILIP BREEDLOVE: If we really believe we’re going to get to whole, free, and at peace and prosperous, then we need a partner in Russia.
GWEN IFILL: Well, give me an example of one way to get there, especially if the person who has to be your partner is Vladimir Putin, who doesn’t show any indication, other than being helpful at the Iran nuclear talks, of being the partner you envision.

GEN. PHILIP BREEDLOVE: So first, it’s communication. We need to reestablish those lines of communication.

You have seen our secretary of state, undersecretary of state reaching out in several forums. Mil-to-mil communications need to become routine again. They are not routine now, where they were once before, communication first.

GWEN IFILL: I guess I hear what you are saying, but I don’t see how you get there.

GEN. PHILIP BREEDLOVE: Its’ not going to be an easy road. And it’s not going to happen quickly. This business with Russia is a long-term thing.

I have said in testimony in other places that this is global, not regional. And it is long-term, not short-term. But we have to start down the path.

GWEN IFILL: Assuming for a moment there is a diplomatic-to-diplomatic impasse or president-to-president impasse, is there a military-to-military way of forging that kind of agreement?
GEN. PHILIP BREEDLOVE: There is.

It is important also that, even if our countries are not getting along, when you are flying airplanes in close vicinity, when you are sailing ships in close vicinity, when you have soldiers on the ground exercising sometimes just on the other side of borders, military men and women have to be able to communicate in a very matter-of-fact way to preclude anything ugly from happening.

]]>http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/nato-commander-russias-use-force-europe-major-threat/feed/008:08Gen. Philip Breedlove, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe, joins Gwen Ifill to discuss the alliance with Turkey against the Islamic State and why Russia poses a major threat in Europe today.no Watch Video | Listen to the Audio GWEN IFILL: General Breedlove, thank you so much for joining us. GEN. PHILIP BREEDLOVE, NATO Supreme Allied Commander: Oh, thanks for having me. GWEN IFILL: I want to start by talking about Turkey. How significant is it PBS NewsHourWorld,News,Current,Events,NewsHour,Television,Radio,Mediahttp://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/nato-commander-russias-use-force-europe-major-threat/The worst humanitarian crisis since World War IIhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewshourWorldPodcast/~3/8QWPVPaJsOM/
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/worst-humanitarian-crisis-since-world-war-ii/#commentsWed, 29 Jul 2015 21:36:47 +0000 PBS NewsHourhttp://www.pbs.org/newshour/?post_type=updates&p=151645

Syrian refugee children, who have been living in Jordan with their family for 2.5 years after fleeing the violence in their Syrian hometown of Idlib, sit in front of their family residence in Madaba city July 9, 2015. Photo by Muhammad Hamed/Reuters

The Syrian refugee crisis is the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II. And we think people should know more about it.

Of the 4 million refugees, the vast majority are women and children. And nearly 3 million of those children are out of school with no hope of returning to any formal education.

For this week’s Shortwave, P.J. Tobia interviews Saba Mobasalat from Save the Children. She talks about a little boy who makes a dollar a day crawling into empty diesel tankers to sponge up and sell leftover oil, and she talks about food aid that’s about to run out of funding.

He also interviews Nihad Sarmini in Jordan, who travels into Northern Syria to help child refugees.

“There is a lot of child labor there, and we found out that their work is very dangerous, and actually it’s affecting their mental and physical health,” he said. Click “listen” on the podcast below to learn more.

Editor’s Note: The World Food Program received $65 million from the United States, enabling the agency to continue the food voucher program — albeit at a lower level — for the 440,000 refugees living outside of camps in Jordan, the agency announced on July 31.

The Syrian refugee crisis is the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II. And we think people should know more about it.

Of the 4 million refugees, the vast majority are women and children. And nearly 3 million of those children are out of school with no hope of returning to any formal education.

For this week’s Shortwave, P.J. Tobia interviews Saba Mobasalat from Save the Children. She talks about a little boy who makes a dollar a day crawling into empty diesel tankers to sponge up and sell leftover oil, and she talks about food aid that’s about to run out of funding.

He also interviews Nihad Sarmini in Jordan, who travels into Northern Syria to help child refugees.

“There is a lot of child labor there, and we found out that their work is very dangerous, and actually it’s affecting their mental and physical health,” he said. Click “listen” on the podcast below to learn more.

Editor’s Note: The World Food Program received $65 million from the United States, enabling the agency to continue the food voucher program — albeit at a lower level — for the 440,000 refugees living outside of camps in Jordan, the agency announced on July 31.

]]>http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/worst-humanitarian-crisis-since-world-war-ii/feed/0The Syrian refugee crisis is the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II. And we think people should know more about it. noSyrian refugee children, who have been living in Jordan with their family for 2.5 years after fleeing the violence in their Syrian hometown of Idlib, sit in front of their family residence in Madaba city July 9, 2015. Photo by Muhammad Hamed/Reuters The S PBS NewsHourWorld,News,Current,Events,NewsHour,Television,Radio,Mediahttp://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/worst-humanitarian-crisis-since-world-war-ii/News Wrap: Turkey strikes Kurdish rebels after soldier death as NATO meets on Islamic Statehttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewshourWorldPodcast/~3/n1LC35Kiqeg/
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/news-wrap-turkish-fight-kurdish-rebels-escalates-nato-meets-islamic-state-threat/#commentsTue, 28 Jul 2015 22:50:24 +0000 PBS NewsHourhttp://www.pbs.org/newshour/?post_type=bb&p=151550

GWEN IFILL: NATO ambassadors convened a rare emergency meeting today in Brussels on the Islamic State threat in Turkey, after a string of attacks. Representatives from 28 nations gathered at NATO headquarters for the special session, at Turkey’s request.

Afterward, the alliance’s secretary-general spoke to reporters.

JENS STOLTENBERG, NATO Secretary-General: All allies stand in solidarity with Turkey. We strongly condemn the terrorist attacks. We express our condolences to the Turkish government and to the families of the victims in Suruc and other attacks against police and military officers.

GWEN IFILL: At the same time, Turkey faced more violence from Kurdish militants. A Turkish soldier was shot in the head near the border with Iraq. In retaliation, Turkish jets hit Kurdish rebel sites in the southeast.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the peace process with Kurds is on hold for now.

PRESIDENT RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN, Turky (through interpreter): I don’t think it’s possible to continue a peace process with those who take aim at our national security and brotherhood. There should have been national unity and brotherhood. Brotherhood comes above the peace process.

GWEN IFILL: The Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, said the airstrikes against them rendered the peace process meaningless. But they stopped short of formally pulling out. The PKK and its affiliates are part of the effort to fight ISIS in Syria.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Obama administration officials today made their second pitch to Congress over the Iran nuclear deal, this time before the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

JOHN KERRY, Secretary of State: There are conclusions that have been drawn that just don’t in fact match with the reality of what this deal sets forth.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Secretary of State John Kerry began his testimony well aware he would face challenging questions from lawmakers over the nuclear deal with Iran. He was joined by Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew.

Committee Chairman Ed Royce claimed the deal, which lifts sanctions on Iran in return for curbs on its nuclear program, would only strengthen Tehran.

REP. ED ROYCE (R), California: If this agreement goes through, Iran gets a cash bonanza, a boost to its international standing, and a lighted path toward nuclear weapons.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Kerry, as he has repeatedly, equated walking away from the deal to giving Iran a fast track to the bomb, but he had a hard time making his points.

JOHN KERRY: You know, we hear these complaints. We hear, well, this agreement doesn’t do this. It doesn’t stop their terror. This agreement’s going to give them some money. This agreement’s going to do this. What this agreement is supposed to do is stop them from having a nuclear weapon.

Now, I want to hear somebody tell me how they’re going to do that without this agreement. What’s the next step for the United States? Nobody’s answering that question.

JUDY WOODRUFF: At times, Kerry was visibly frustrated as lawmakers peppered him with their doubts about the deal.

MAN: Your time has expired.

MAN: Yes.

MAN: I have suggested to the members ask the questions and leave time for response.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Members from both parties also expressed concern over the fates of four Americans in Iran, three held by the regime, one whereabouts unknown, and over Iran’s support for militant groups.

REP. BRAD SHERMAN (D), California: They are supporting Hamas, Hezbollah and Houthi, and those are just the organizations that begin with the letter H.

MAN: We stand adjourned.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Congress began a 60-day review period on the deal last week, and Secretary Kerry leaves later this week for the Middle East to discuss the agreement with Arab allies.

The deal did pick up critical support today from Democratic Representative Sander Levin of Michigan. He’s Jewish and a strong supporter of Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called the agreement a historic mistake.

GWEN IFILL: In his last day on the continent, President Obama pushed African leaders to do their part to make Africa more stable and economically attractive. During a speech to the African Union meeting in Ethiopia, the president called on his counterparts to support human rights, prioritize job creation and clean up corruption.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA, United States: Nothing will unlock Africa’s economic potential more than ending the cancer of corruption. When someone has to pay a bribe just to start a business or go to school or get an official to do the job they are supposed to be doing anyway, that’s not the African way. It undermines the dignity of the people you represent.

(APPLAUSE)

GWEN IFILL: The president also said, nobody should be president for life, remarks aimed at African leaders who have held onto power long after their terms expire.

JUDY WOODRUFF: The son of late Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi was sentenced to death by firing squad today in Tripoli. Saif al-Islam Gadhafi was convicted of war crimes committed during the 2011 uprising that forced his father out of office. Gadhafi’s son wasn’t in the courtroom when the ruling was handed down. He’s been held for four years by a militia in Western Libya that has refused to hand him over.

GWEN IFILL: Back in this country, an Upstate New York prison worker pleaded guilty today to helping two killers escape. Joyce Mitchell wept as she entered her plea today in Plattsburgh. The former prison tailor admitted to smuggling hacksaw blades and other tools to the men inside frozen hamburger meat.

Richard Matt and David Sweat’s daring prison break last month triggered a three-week manhunt. Mitchell could face up to seven years in prison. Her sentencing is set for late September.

JUDY WOODRUFF: More than 1,000 scientists and tech experts warned today of the danger of an artificial intelligence arms race. In an open letter, the signatories called for a ban on autonomous weapons that are beyond meaningful human control. Technology could make robots on battlefields a reality within years, not decades. Stephen Hawking, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Motors, were among those who signed the letter.

GWEN IFILL: Archaeologists in Jamestown, Virginia, have discovered the remains of four of the first colonial leaders in America. Their burial sites were discovered two years ago in the earthen floor near the altar of what’s left of America’s first Protestant church. The men were buried between 1608 and 1610 alongside various artifacts, a rare practice at the time. It included a small silver box with bone fragments and a holy water container, a mysterious Catholic find for the Anglican religion of the colony.

JUDY WOODRUFF: The National Football League officially has its first female coach. The Arizona Cardinals hired 37-year-old Jen Welter to coach inside linebackers during their preseason training camp. Welter, who has a Ph.D. in psychology, previously coached and played for the men’s professional indoor football league’s Texas Revolution team.

GWEN IFILL: The four-game suspension against New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady will stand. He was suspended by the league for his role in using underinflated footballs during last season’s AFC Championship Game. Brady and the team have denied the charges. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell also said today Brady had his cell phone destroyed on the day he was due to meet with an independent investigator in the Deflategate scandal.

JUDY WOODRUFF: A wave of strong corporate earnings reports coupled with a rise in the price of oil boosted stocks on Wall Street today. The Dow Jones industrial average gained more than 189 points to close at 17630. The Nasdaq rose 49 points and the S&P 500 added 25.

GWEN IFILL: NATO ambassadors convened a rare emergency meeting today in Brussels on the Islamic State threat in Turkey, after a string of attacks. Representatives from 28 nations gathered at NATO headquarters for the special session, at Turkey’s request.

Afterward, the alliance’s secretary-general spoke to reporters.

JENS STOLTENBERG, NATO Secretary-General: All allies stand in solidarity with Turkey. We strongly condemn the terrorist attacks. We express our condolences to the Turkish government and to the families of the victims in Suruc and other attacks against police and military officers.

GWEN IFILL: At the same time, Turkey faced more violence from Kurdish militants. A Turkish soldier was shot in the head near the border with Iraq. In retaliation, Turkish jets hit Kurdish rebel sites in the southeast.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the peace process with Kurds is on hold for now.

PRESIDENT RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN, Turky (through interpreter): I don’t think it’s possible to continue a peace process with those who take aim at our national security and brotherhood. There should have been national unity and brotherhood. Brotherhood comes above the peace process.

GWEN IFILL: The Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, said the airstrikes against them rendered the peace process meaningless. But they stopped short of formally pulling out. The PKK and its affiliates are part of the effort to fight ISIS in Syria.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Obama administration officials today made their second pitch to Congress over the Iran nuclear deal, this time before the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

JOHN KERRY, Secretary of State: There are conclusions that have been drawn that just don’t in fact match with the reality of what this deal sets forth.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Secretary of State John Kerry began his testimony well aware he would face challenging questions from lawmakers over the nuclear deal with Iran. He was joined by Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew.

Committee Chairman Ed Royce claimed the deal, which lifts sanctions on Iran in return for curbs on its nuclear program, would only strengthen Tehran.

REP. ED ROYCE (R), California: If this agreement goes through, Iran gets a cash bonanza, a boost to its international standing, and a lighted path toward nuclear weapons.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Kerry, as he has repeatedly, equated walking away from the deal to giving Iran a fast track to the bomb, but he had a hard time making his points.

JOHN KERRY: You know, we hear these complaints. We hear, well, this agreement doesn’t do this. It doesn’t stop their terror. This agreement’s going to give them some money. This agreement’s going to do this. What this agreement is supposed to do is stop them from having a nuclear weapon.

Now, I want to hear somebody tell me how they’re going to do that without this agreement. What’s the next step for the United States? Nobody’s answering that question.

JUDY WOODRUFF: At times, Kerry was visibly frustrated as lawmakers peppered him with their doubts about the deal.

MAN: Your time has expired.

MAN: Yes.

MAN: I have suggested to the members ask the questions and leave time for response.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Members from both parties also expressed concern over the fates of four Americans in Iran, three held by the regime, one whereabouts unknown, and over Iran’s support for militant groups.

REP. BRAD SHERMAN (D), California: They are supporting Hamas, Hezbollah and Houthi, and those are just the organizations that begin with the letter H.

MAN: We stand adjourned.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Congress began a 60-day review period on the deal last week, and Secretary Kerry leaves later this week for the Middle East to discuss the agreement with Arab allies.

The deal did pick up critical support today from Democratic Representative Sander Levin of Michigan. He’s Jewish and a strong supporter of Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called the agreement a historic mistake.

GWEN IFILL: In his last day on the continent, President Obama pushed African leaders to do their part to make Africa more stable and economically attractive. During a speech to the African Union meeting in Ethiopia, the president called on his counterparts to support human rights, prioritize job creation and clean up corruption.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA, United States: Nothing will unlock Africa’s economic potential more than ending the cancer of corruption. When someone has to pay a bribe just to start a business or go to school or get an official to do the job they are supposed to be doing anyway, that’s not the African way. It undermines the dignity of the people you represent.

(APPLAUSE)

GWEN IFILL: The president also said, nobody should be president for life, remarks aimed at African leaders who have held onto power long after their terms expire.

JUDY WOODRUFF: The son of late Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi was sentenced to death by firing squad today in Tripoli. Saif al-Islam Gadhafi was convicted of war crimes committed during the 2011 uprising that forced his father out of office. Gadhafi’s son wasn’t in the courtroom when the ruling was handed down. He’s been held for four years by a militia in Western Libya that has refused to hand him over.

GWEN IFILL: Back in this country, an Upstate New York prison worker pleaded guilty today to helping two killers escape. Joyce Mitchell wept as she entered her plea today in Plattsburgh. The former prison tailor admitted to smuggling hacksaw blades and other tools to the men inside frozen hamburger meat.

Richard Matt and David Sweat’s daring prison break last month triggered a three-week manhunt. Mitchell could face up to seven years in prison. Her sentencing is set for late September.

JUDY WOODRUFF: More than 1,000 scientists and tech experts warned today of the danger of an artificial intelligence arms race. In an open letter, the signatories called for a ban on autonomous weapons that are beyond meaningful human control. Technology could make robots on battlefields a reality within years, not decades. Stephen Hawking, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Motors, were among those who signed the letter.

GWEN IFILL: Archaeologists in Jamestown, Virginia, have discovered the remains of four of the first colonial leaders in America. Their burial sites were discovered two years ago in the earthen floor near the altar of what’s left of America’s first Protestant church. The men were buried between 1608 and 1610 alongside various artifacts, a rare practice at the time. It included a small silver box with bone fragments and a holy water container, a mysterious Catholic find for the Anglican religion of the colony.

JUDY WOODRUFF: The National Football League officially has its first female coach. The Arizona Cardinals hired 37-year-old Jen Welter to coach inside linebackers during their preseason training camp. Welter, who has a Ph.D. in psychology, previously coached and played for the men’s professional indoor football league’s Texas Revolution team.

GWEN IFILL: The four-game suspension against New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady will stand. He was suspended by the league for his role in using underinflated footballs during last season’s AFC Championship Game. Brady and the team have denied the charges. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell also said today Brady had his cell phone destroyed on the day he was due to meet with an independent investigator in the Deflategate scandal.

JUDY WOODRUFF: A wave of strong corporate earnings reports coupled with a rise in the price of oil boosted stocks on Wall Street today. The Dow Jones industrial average gained more than 189 points to close at 17630. The Nasdaq rose 49 points and the S&P 500 added 25.

]]>http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/news-wrap-turkish-fight-kurdish-rebels-escalates-nato-meets-islamic-state-threat/feed/07:54In our news wrap Tuesday, representatives from 28 nations convened an emergency NATO meeting to discuss the threat of the Islamic State in Turkey. Meanwhile, a Turkish soldier was shot by a Kurdish militant near the border with Iraq, causing Turkey to retaliate with airstrikes. Also, the Obama administration returned to Congress for another round of testimony on the Iran nuclear agreement.no Watch Video | Listen to the Audio GWEN IFILL: NATO ambassadors convened a rare emergency meeting today in Brussels on the Islamic State threat in Turkey, after a string of attacks. Representatives from 28 nations gathered at NATO headquarters for the spe PBS NewsHourWorld,News,Current,Events,NewsHour,Television,Radio,Mediahttp://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/news-wrap-turkish-fight-kurdish-rebels-escalates-nato-meets-islamic-state-threat/Is there a connection between Pollard release timing and Iran deal?http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewshourWorldPodcast/~3/dCXsJ4FQPUU/
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/connection-pollard-release-timing-iran-deal/#commentsTue, 28 Jul 2015 22:45:17 +0000 PBS NewsHourhttp://www.pbs.org/newshour/?post_type=bb&p=151553

JUDY WOODRUFF: Lawyers for convicted spy Jonathan Pollard announced today that the U.S. government will be granting the 60-year-old parole. The former Naval intelligence analyst was convicted of selling classified information to Israel, and has been in prison for nearly 30 years. Israeli leaders have been asking for Pollard’s release for decades.

Reporter Devlin Barrett has been covering the story for The Wall Street Journal and he joins me now.

And welcome back to the program.

DEVLIN BARRETT, The Wall Street Journal: Hi. Thanks.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So, Devlin, remind us who Jonathan Pollard is and why he was sent to prison for life?

DEVLIN BARRETT: He was sentenced to life after — in 1985, he was arrested and charged with passing suitcases full of classified documents from his work at the Navy to the Israelis. And it was an amazing case in a lot of ways, because, you know, the U.S. is very close to Israel.

And, traditionally speaking, the U.S. view is that nations that are this close don’t spy on each other this aggressively. So, when he was sentenced in ’87, he received a life sentence. And, basically, that set off a decade of disagreement and pressure from Israel to release him before he died.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Now, he pleaded guilty.

DEVLIN BARRETT: Right.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So, what was the argument by Israel that he should be released?

DEVLIN BARRETT: Well, the argument has always been, you know, he was spying for an ally. He didn’t actually harm U.S. national security, the same way a spy for the Soviet Union would, because those secrets were taken by a friendly nation.

I think one of the quirks of the Pollard case is that, in a lot of spy cases, we will swap them for our own agents that we want back. For Pollard, unluckily, I guess, there was really no one ever to swap for him, and so that’s part of the reason why he’s remained in prison all this time.

JUDY WOODRUFF: How much is known, Devlin, about what was in the material that he took and gave to Israel?

DEVLIN BARRETT: The defense secretary at the time, Caspar Weinberger, said he could not imagine a case that did more harm to national security.

I think there is some debate within the intelligence community about that, because certainly spies like Aldrich Ames are credited with giving up information that directly led to deaths of agents, that got people killed. That has been an issue of a debate around Pollard, but no one has — the government has never come forward and really explicitly made that accusation against him.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Now, today, the U.S. Parole Board is saying that there is no connection between this decision to let him out in November and what’s going on with Iran, the Israelis, obviously, very upset with the U.S. deal on nuclear weapons with Iran.

You talked to U.S. officials, though, who give you a somewhat different spin.

DEVLIN BARRETT: Right. I spoke to multiple U.S. officials who said they believe there is some connection, that that’s not the sole reason, but that’s part of the thinking behind releasing him now.

I will say that Obama administration officials adamantly deny that as being in any way related to a foreign policy consideration. What’s sort of funny about that is that, if that were true, this would be probably the first time in this man’s life in maybe 30 years that he wasn’t part of a foreign policy discussion.

He’s basically been a human bargaining chip for the last 20 years.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So, what — is this supposed to have an effect on, a salutary effect on U.S.-Israeli relations?

DEVLIN BARRETT: I think it could, but I think anyone who thinks that this will significantly affect the way Israel views the Iran deal is mistaken, that it may create some goodwill just in the general Israeli population, maybe even among Israeli leaders.

But, in the end, the Iran deal is bigger than Pollard. As important as Pollard may be to Israel, the Iran deal is simply bigger than Pollard.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And what happens to Jonathan Pollard once he gets out of prison?

DEVLIN BARRETT: Well, he very much wants to go to Israel. Israel granted him citizenship in 1995. The U.S. government has to decide whether to let him do that.

His lawyers have said, if he can’t leave the country, which is sometimes a condition of parole, he will move to the New York area.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And — but that has to be worked out?

DEVLIN BARRETT: That’s still to be worked out. And his official release date is November, so there’s a little time to work that out still.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Lawyers for convicted spy Jonathan Pollard announced today that the U.S. government will be granting the 60-year-old parole. The former Naval intelligence analyst was convicted of selling classified information to Israel, and has been in prison for nearly 30 years. Israeli leaders have been asking for Pollard’s release for decades.

Reporter Devlin Barrett has been covering the story for The Wall Street Journal and he joins me now.

And welcome back to the program.

DEVLIN BARRETT, The Wall Street Journal: Hi. Thanks.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So, Devlin, remind us who Jonathan Pollard is and why he was sent to prison for life?

DEVLIN BARRETT: He was sentenced to life after — in 1985, he was arrested and charged with passing suitcases full of classified documents from his work at the Navy to the Israelis. And it was an amazing case in a lot of ways, because, you know, the U.S. is very close to Israel.

And, traditionally speaking, the U.S. view is that nations that are this close don’t spy on each other this aggressively. So, when he was sentenced in ’87, he received a life sentence. And, basically, that set off a decade of disagreement and pressure from Israel to release him before he died.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Now, he pleaded guilty.

DEVLIN BARRETT: Right.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So, what was the argument by Israel that he should be released?

DEVLIN BARRETT: Well, the argument has always been, you know, he was spying for an ally. He didn’t actually harm U.S. national security, the same way a spy for the Soviet Union would, because those secrets were taken by a friendly nation.

I think one of the quirks of the Pollard case is that, in a lot of spy cases, we will swap them for our own agents that we want back. For Pollard, unluckily, I guess, there was really no one ever to swap for him, and so that’s part of the reason why he’s remained in prison all this time.

JUDY WOODRUFF: How much is known, Devlin, about what was in the material that he took and gave to Israel?

DEVLIN BARRETT: The defense secretary at the time, Caspar Weinberger, said he could not imagine a case that did more harm to national security.

I think there is some debate within the intelligence community about that, because certainly spies like Aldrich Ames are credited with giving up information that directly led to deaths of agents, that got people killed. That has been an issue of a debate around Pollard, but no one has — the government has never come forward and really explicitly made that accusation against him.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Now, today, the U.S. Parole Board is saying that there is no connection between this decision to let him out in November and what’s going on with Iran, the Israelis, obviously, very upset with the U.S. deal on nuclear weapons with Iran.

You talked to U.S. officials, though, who give you a somewhat different spin.

DEVLIN BARRETT: Right. I spoke to multiple U.S. officials who said they believe there is some connection, that that’s not the sole reason, but that’s part of the thinking behind releasing him now.

I will say that Obama administration officials adamantly deny that as being in any way related to a foreign policy consideration. What’s sort of funny about that is that, if that were true, this would be probably the first time in this man’s life in maybe 30 years that he wasn’t part of a foreign policy discussion.

He’s basically been a human bargaining chip for the last 20 years.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So, what — is this supposed to have an effect on, a salutary effect on U.S.-Israeli relations?

DEVLIN BARRETT: I think it could, but I think anyone who thinks that this will significantly affect the way Israel views the Iran deal is mistaken, that it may create some goodwill just in the general Israeli population, maybe even among Israeli leaders.

But, in the end, the Iran deal is bigger than Pollard. As important as Pollard may be to Israel, the Iran deal is simply bigger than Pollard.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And what happens to Jonathan Pollard once he gets out of prison?

DEVLIN BARRETT: Well, he very much wants to go to Israel. Israel granted him citizenship in 1995. The U.S. government has to decide whether to let him do that.

His lawyers have said, if he can’t leave the country, which is sometimes a condition of parole, he will move to the New York area.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And — but that has to be worked out?

DEVLIN BARRETT: That’s still to be worked out. And his official release date is November, so there’s a little time to work that out still.

]]>http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/connection-pollard-release-timing-iran-deal/feed/04:05Lawyers for convicted spy Jonathan Pollard announced today that he would be granted parole after nearly 30 years. Pollard, a former Naval intelligence analyst, was convicted of selling classified information to Israel. Judy Woodruff discusses the case with Devlin Barrett from The Wall Street Journal.no Watch Video | Listen to the Audio JUDY WOODRUFF: Lawyers for convicted spy Jonathan Pollard announced today that the U.S. government will be granting the 60-year-old parole. The former Naval intelligence analyst was convicted of selling classified inform PBS NewsHourWorld,News,Current,Events,NewsHour,Television,Radio,Mediahttp://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/connection-pollard-release-timing-iran-deal/How slavery and murder goes unpunished on the high seashttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewshourWorldPodcast/~3/TaxsGqOR0P0/
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/slavery-murder-goes-unpunished-high-seas/#commentsTue, 28 Jul 2015 22:25:02 +0000 PBS NewsHourhttp://www.pbs.org/newshour/?post_type=bb&p=151552

JUDY WOODRUFF: Now a look at some uncharted waters and the dangers faced by those out at sea.

William Brangham reports.

And a warning: The story contains some graphic images.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: It’s easy to overlook just how dependent our lives and the entire global economy have become on shipping and the seas.

Today, several million ships carry roughly 90 percent of the world’s goods. But a New York Times series shows how little we know about the lawless seas. Migrants, stowaways and fishermen disappear, often killed in accidents, or worse. There’s evidence of murders taking place offshore.

And tens of thousands of workers are essentially enslaved each year. All the while, international maritime law seems wholly inadequate and few authorities ever step in.

Ian Urbina reported this series, and he joins me now.

Ian, welcome.

IAN URBINA, The New York Times: Thanks.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: In the first part of your series, you talk about a particular ship, the Dona Liberta. And you document a whole manner of crimes, terrible treatment of its crew, throwing stowaways overboard, dumping oily residue into the water. You’re able to name the owner of the ship, but yet nothing seems to be done about that.

Why is that?

IAN URBINA: Number one, a lot of these companies are essentially P.O. boxes, and they’re sort of shells over shells over shells.

And that was the case here. So, just pinning down the owning company was tough. But, secondly, you have a boat that has maybe 10 different nationalities, in terms of the crew, the captain from yet another nation. The company that owns it is the third nation, and it’s flagged to a fourth nation, and it’s passing through international waters.

So, even figuring out who would prosecute or investigate a crime is tough. And then the last part is there is really no one wanting to investigate these matters. When crimes occur, it’s usually against crew or the environment. And the crew are typically from poor countries and those countries don’t have the wherewithal to prosecute.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Is there a governing body or an organization that is supposed to have jurisdiction in these matters?

IAN URBINA: The flag that a ship flies is ultimately the country that should take responsibility.

But those flags are businesses. And they don’t have enforcement wings. They don’t have police. They don’t have investigators. And they don’t have much incentive really to investigate their clients. There are overarching bodies, like at the U.N., the International Maritime Organization, but, again, it’s not an enforcement agency, so complaints can be filed with it, but they usually sit there on record.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: You document in your series some — the conditions for fishing boat workers, and the way you describe it is that many of these workers are, in essence, slaves. Who are these men and how did they end up in the circumstances that they’re in?

IAN URBINA: So, that’s a story that we focused on the South China Sea, where this problem is most acute.

Most of these vessels that we looked at were Thai-flagged trawlers or fishing vessels. They are smaller boats. And the crews predominantly come from Laos, Cambodia. And there are many Burmese. And they are trafficked into the country across the border illegally, oftentimes under the pretense that they are going to get a job in construction or some land-based job.

Next thing they know, they are at the port, and they are being sort of shuttled onto a ship. And the traffickers sells them essentially to the boat captain. And they are indentured on the boat and are supposed to work until their debt is cleared. But once you get out to sea, it’s not a realm of bookkeeping and exact accounts.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: You can’t just get off.

IAN URBINA: Right, so they stay there.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: In your series, you document a horrible incident that happened, I believe it was in the Indian Ocean, of this very graphic cell phone video of men being shot in the water.

Again, this is pretty clear evidence of a graphic, horrible crime. And yet no one has been held to account for this. How do you explain that?

IAN URBINA: It’s pretty amazing.

So, this was a cell phone video that was found. And it shows a clear case of murder. There are four men floating in the water. And over 10 minutes, they are shot. And at the end of the video, the most striking part is that those involved in the shooting pose for selfies.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: They have just shot men to death in the water, and then here they are taking selfies of themselves.

IAN URBINA: And the video ends up on the Internet. And so the question is, how is it possible, with this much evidence? There were four large tuna long-line vessels in the area, so that means there are dozens of witnesses, a video on the Internet with the culprits.

And — but it gets to the heart of the issue that you raised before. There is no interested party that has the wherewithal to prosecute or investigate. And, at the end of the day, the seas are this sprawling space. And so pinning down when and where something occurs out there, when there are so few other people that weren’t party to the crime, is difficult

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The environmental crimes that you document in this series are also quite stark.

You write: “Ships intentionally dump more engine oil and sludge Into the oceans in the span of three years than that spilled in the Deepwater Horizon and Exxon Valdez accidents combined, ocean researchers say, and emit huge amounts of certain air pollutants, far more than all the world’s cars.”

What is being done to combat those types of crimes?

IAN URBINA: Not a whole lot, again, because, while there are rules on the books, rules are only as good as their enforcement.

And that’s where the high seas become especially difficult, because it’s super costly to put boats on the water. It’s such a huge space to patrol. And no nation has the jurisdiction to do that on the high seas, because it belongs to everyone and no one. So there are strong rules on the books prevent — forbidding that kind of behavior, but there is no one out there to stop it.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Ian Urbina of The New York Times, thank you very much.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Now a look at some uncharted waters and the dangers faced by those out at sea.

William Brangham reports.

And a warning: The story contains some graphic images.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: It’s easy to overlook just how dependent our lives and the entire global economy have become on shipping and the seas.

Today, several million ships carry roughly 90 percent of the world’s goods. But a New York Times series shows how little we know about the lawless seas. Migrants, stowaways and fishermen disappear, often killed in accidents, or worse. There’s evidence of murders taking place offshore.

And tens of thousands of workers are essentially enslaved each year. All the while, international maritime law seems wholly inadequate and few authorities ever step in.

Ian Urbina reported this series, and he joins me now.

Ian, welcome.

IAN URBINA, The New York Times: Thanks.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: In the first part of your series, you talk about a particular ship, the Dona Liberta. And you document a whole manner of crimes, terrible treatment of its crew, throwing stowaways overboard, dumping oily residue into the water. You’re able to name the owner of the ship, but yet nothing seems to be done about that.

Why is that?

IAN URBINA: Number one, a lot of these companies are essentially P.O. boxes, and they’re sort of shells over shells over shells.

And that was the case here. So, just pinning down the owning company was tough. But, secondly, you have a boat that has maybe 10 different nationalities, in terms of the crew, the captain from yet another nation. The company that owns it is the third nation, and it’s flagged to a fourth nation, and it’s passing through international waters.

So, even figuring out who would prosecute or investigate a crime is tough. And then the last part is there is really no one wanting to investigate these matters. When crimes occur, it’s usually against crew or the environment. And the crew are typically from poor countries and those countries don’t have the wherewithal to prosecute.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Is there a governing body or an organization that is supposed to have jurisdiction in these matters?

IAN URBINA: The flag that a ship flies is ultimately the country that should take responsibility.

But those flags are businesses. And they don’t have enforcement wings. They don’t have police. They don’t have investigators. And they don’t have much incentive really to investigate their clients. There are overarching bodies, like at the U.N., the International Maritime Organization, but, again, it’s not an enforcement agency, so complaints can be filed with it, but they usually sit there on record.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: You document in your series some — the conditions for fishing boat workers, and the way you describe it is that many of these workers are, in essence, slaves. Who are these men and how did they end up in the circumstances that they’re in?

IAN URBINA: So, that’s a story that we focused on the South China Sea, where this problem is most acute.

Most of these vessels that we looked at were Thai-flagged trawlers or fishing vessels. They are smaller boats. And the crews predominantly come from Laos, Cambodia. And there are many Burmese. And they are trafficked into the country across the border illegally, oftentimes under the pretense that they are going to get a job in construction or some land-based job.

Next thing they know, they are at the port, and they are being sort of shuttled onto a ship. And the traffickers sells them essentially to the boat captain. And they are indentured on the boat and are supposed to work until their debt is cleared. But once you get out to sea, it’s not a realm of bookkeeping and exact accounts.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: You can’t just get off.

IAN URBINA: Right, so they stay there.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: In your series, you document a horrible incident that happened, I believe it was in the Indian Ocean, of this very graphic cell phone video of men being shot in the water.

Again, this is pretty clear evidence of a graphic, horrible crime. And yet no one has been held to account for this. How do you explain that?

IAN URBINA: It’s pretty amazing.

So, this was a cell phone video that was found. And it shows a clear case of murder. There are four men floating in the water. And over 10 minutes, they are shot. And at the end of the video, the most striking part is that those involved in the shooting pose for selfies.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: They have just shot men to death in the water, and then here they are taking selfies of themselves.

IAN URBINA: And the video ends up on the Internet. And so the question is, how is it possible, with this much evidence? There were four large tuna long-line vessels in the area, so that means there are dozens of witnesses, a video on the Internet with the culprits.

And — but it gets to the heart of the issue that you raised before. There is no interested party that has the wherewithal to prosecute or investigate. And, at the end of the day, the seas are this sprawling space. And so pinning down when and where something occurs out there, when there are so few other people that weren’t party to the crime, is difficult

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The environmental crimes that you document in this series are also quite stark.

You write: “Ships intentionally dump more engine oil and sludge Into the oceans in the span of three years than that spilled in the Deepwater Horizon and Exxon Valdez accidents combined, ocean researchers say, and emit huge amounts of certain air pollutants, far more than all the world’s cars.”

What is being done to combat those types of crimes?

IAN URBINA: Not a whole lot, again, because, while there are rules on the books, rules are only as good as their enforcement.

And that’s where the high seas become especially difficult, because it’s super costly to put boats on the water. It’s such a huge space to patrol. And no nation has the jurisdiction to do that on the high seas, because it belongs to everyone and no one. So there are strong rules on the books prevent — forbidding that kind of behavior, but there is no one out there to stop it.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Ian Urbina of The New York Times, thank you very much.

]]>http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/slavery-murder-goes-unpunished-high-seas/feed/06:27The global economy and our daily lives have become increasingly dependent on shipping, as millions of ships carry roughly 90 percent of the world's goods. But we know little of the crime and lawlessness that takes place at sea. Ian Urbina of The New York Times joins William Brangham to discuss cases of murder, enslavement and pollution and why little can be done to stop it.no Watch Video | Listen to the Audio JUDY WOODRUFF: Now a look at some uncharted waters and the dangers faced by those out at sea. William Brangham reports. And a warning: The story contains some graphic images. WILLIAM BRANGHAM: It&#8217;s easy to overlook PBS NewsHourWorld,News,Current,Events,NewsHour,Television,Radio,Mediahttp://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/slavery-murder-goes-unpunished-high-seas/News Wrap: Yemen airstrikes resume despite cease-firehttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewshourWorldPodcast/~3/o9z4q6kdp5c/
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/news-wrap-yemen-airstrikes-resume-despite-cease-fire/#commentsMon, 27 Jul 2015 22:50:39 +0000 PBS NewsHourhttp://www.pbs.org/newshour/?post_type=bb&p=151416

GWEN IFILL: The death toll from Sunday’s Al-Shabaab suicide bombing in Somalia’s capital rose today to 15. The facade of the five-story hotel in Mogadishu was sheared off when a car packed with explosives rammed into its front gate.

In neighboring Ethiopia today, President Obama said the Islamic militant’s attack underscored the need to push back against violent extremism.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA,: Yesterday’s bombing in Mogadishu reminds us that terrorist groups like Al-Shabaab offer nothing but death and destruction and have to be stopped. We have got more work to do.

GWEN IFILL: The blast killed a Kenyan diplomat, a Chinese embassy guard and two journalists, among others.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Airstrikes resumed in Yemen today, shortly after a midnight humanitarian cease-fire went into effect. The Saudi-led coalition pounded Houthi targets near the rebel-held military base of al-Anad and north of the port city of Aden. Fifteen coalition troops were also accidentally killed in two strikes in the province of Lahj. The five-day truce was designed to get much-needed humanitarian aid to civilians in the hardest-hit areas.

GWEN IFILL: With no way to make a looming loan repayment, Puerto Rico has come up with a plan to raise up to $500 million through oil revenue. That’s only a fraction of the $3 billion it had hoped to raise to refinance its debt. The governor’s chief of staff told reporters today the commonwealth can’t raise enough from its public finance corporation bonds before an August 1 deadline.
JUDY WOODRUFF: The U.S. Olympic Committee killed Boston’s bid to host the Summer Games in 2024 after the city raised financial questions. Earlier today, Boston’s mayor express worry the multibillion-dollar event would put taxpayers at risk. Marty Walsh said he didn’t want the city’s residents to have to foot the bill if local Olympic organizers ran out of money.

MARTY WALSH (D), Mayor of Boston, Massachusetts: I refuse to mortgage the future of the city away. I refuse to put Boston on the hook for overruns. And I refuse to commit to signing a guarantee that uses taxpayers’ dollars to pay for the Olympics.

JUDY WOODRUFF: There are only seven weeks left to officially nominate another city. The U.S. hasn’t hosted a Summer Olympics since the 1996 games in Atlanta.

In economic news, China’s Shanghai stock index plummeted 8.5 percent today. Most of that sharp decline was in the last hour of trading. It was its largest one-day loss since 2007, in spite of the Chinese government’s recent efforts to stabilize the market. Analysts attributed the sell-off to weaker-than-expected economic data, including a drop in Chinese factory activity and industrial profits.

GWEN IFILL: Fears of a slowdown in China’s economy pushed stocks lower on Wall Street. The Dow Jones industrial average slid 128 points to close at 17440. The Nasdaq fell more than 48 points, and the S&P 500 lost 12 points.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Bobbi Kristina Brown, the daughter of R&B singers Bobbi Brown and the late Whitney Houston, has died. She passed away Sunday at a hospice in Duluth, Georgia, six months after she was found unresponsive in a bathtub. She was 22 years old.

GWEN IFILL: The death toll from Sunday’s Al-Shabaab suicide bombing in Somalia’s capital rose today to 15. The facade of the five-story hotel in Mogadishu was sheared off when a car packed with explosives rammed into its front gate.

In neighboring Ethiopia today, President Obama said the Islamic militant’s attack underscored the need to push back against violent extremism.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA,: Yesterday’s bombing in Mogadishu reminds us that terrorist groups like Al-Shabaab offer nothing but death and destruction and have to be stopped. We have got more work to do.

GWEN IFILL: The blast killed a Kenyan diplomat, a Chinese embassy guard and two journalists, among others.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Airstrikes resumed in Yemen today, shortly after a midnight humanitarian cease-fire went into effect. The Saudi-led coalition pounded Houthi targets near the rebel-held military base of al-Anad and north of the port city of Aden. Fifteen coalition troops were also accidentally killed in two strikes in the province of Lahj. The five-day truce was designed to get much-needed humanitarian aid to civilians in the hardest-hit areas.

GWEN IFILL: With no way to make a looming loan repayment, Puerto Rico has come up with a plan to raise up to $500 million through oil revenue. That’s only a fraction of the $3 billion it had hoped to raise to refinance its debt. The governor’s chief of staff told reporters today the commonwealth can’t raise enough from its public finance corporation bonds before an August 1 deadline.
JUDY WOODRUFF: The U.S. Olympic Committee killed Boston’s bid to host the Summer Games in 2024 after the city raised financial questions. Earlier today, Boston’s mayor express worry the multibillion-dollar event would put taxpayers at risk. Marty Walsh said he didn’t want the city’s residents to have to foot the bill if local Olympic organizers ran out of money.

MARTY WALSH (D), Mayor of Boston, Massachusetts: I refuse to mortgage the future of the city away. I refuse to put Boston on the hook for overruns. And I refuse to commit to signing a guarantee that uses taxpayers’ dollars to pay for the Olympics.

JUDY WOODRUFF: There are only seven weeks left to officially nominate another city. The U.S. hasn’t hosted a Summer Olympics since the 1996 games in Atlanta.

In economic news, China’s Shanghai stock index plummeted 8.5 percent today. Most of that sharp decline was in the last hour of trading. It was its largest one-day loss since 2007, in spite of the Chinese government’s recent efforts to stabilize the market. Analysts attributed the sell-off to weaker-than-expected economic data, including a drop in Chinese factory activity and industrial profits.

GWEN IFILL: Fears of a slowdown in China’s economy pushed stocks lower on Wall Street. The Dow Jones industrial average slid 128 points to close at 17440. The Nasdaq fell more than 48 points, and the S&P 500 lost 12 points.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Bobbi Kristina Brown, the daughter of R&B singers Bobbi Brown and the late Whitney Houston, has died. She passed away Sunday at a hospice in Duluth, Georgia, six months after she was found unresponsive in a bathtub. She was 22 years old.

GWEN IFILL: Turkey and the U.S. are working on plans to sweep Islamic State fighters from a strip of land across the Turkish border with Syria. This comes as Istanbul steps up its air campaign against the extremist group and its crackdown on Kurdish insurgents.

Special correspondent Jane Ferguson reports from Southern Turkey, where many are holding their breaths.

JANE FERGUSON: American fighter jets will soon be launched closer to the Islamic State group than ever before. From this Turkish base at Incirlik, they will pound the extremist group just across the border in Syria.

A new deal between the U.S. and Turkey will allow Americans to launch airstrikes from Turkish soil and increase Turkey’s role in the fight. This is a major turnaround for Turkey, which has been criticized for not doing enough to tackle ISIS. Now deadly attacks by the group along the border have pushed the Turkish government to act.

At this outpost, 100 yards from ISIS, a Turkish soldier was shot dead by the group last week. Elbeyli village is the nearest Turkish village. People here are terrified that ISIS is simply too close. Some told us they want more soldiers to keep them safe.

“We are so nervous,” local resident Mehmet Orman says. “We want to see a normal life again here. We cannot sleep.”

An hour down the road, the group’s power is alarmingly apparent. In areas like this along the Turkish border, ISIS are so close to Turkey that you can see their flags flying. Just behind me on that wall, there is an ISIS flag, just feet away. Now, what the Turkish government want to do is to push ISIS back from these areas to create some sort of safe zone or buffer.

STEVEN COOK, Council on Foreign Relations: It’s clear that Turkey believes that, once you establish a safe zone, people will go back to it.

JANE FERGUSON: Steven Cook is a Middle East scholar at the Council on Foreign Relations.

STEVEN COOK: It will become a place from which moderate Syrian forces will then expand in its march against the Islamic State, as well as the Assad regime. But, of course, one can imagine a whole host of scenarios that pull Turkish forces, as well as potentially American forces further into the Syria fight.

JANE FERGUSON: The Islamic State has also hit the Kurdish people in Eastern Turkey. Ethnic Kurdish communities straddle the border between Turkey and Syria. Kurdish rebel fighters inside Syria have been battling ISIS for months.

Last week, a suicide bomber killed 32 young activists in the Kurdish town of Suruc near the border inside Turkey. The attack shocked the nation and increased calls for action against ISIS. The young people killed here were planning to bring toys for children across the border a few miles to Kobani, where Kurdish forces had routed ISIS earlier this year.

The five-month-long battle for Kobani was a significant victory for the Kurdish forces. It showed their growing strength inside Syria. The Turkish government watched with concern those gains in Kurdish territory, fearful their own Kurdish population may push harder for independence. Now this new deal with the American military opens the door for Turkey to fight not only ISIS, but the Kurds.

And it’s already happening. Turkish jets bombed both ISIS in Syria and Kurdish forces of the Turkish insurgent force called the PKK, based in Iraq, as soon as the deal was announced. A two-year-old cease-fire with those Kurdish rebels in Turkey is now believed to be over. People back in Suruc say Turkey is only starting another war inside its own territory.

In the name of operations against ISIS, they’re attacking Kurds,” this man tells me. “We don’t accept this. I’m sure we don’t want war. Why don’t we want war? Look at Egypt, Kobani, Lebanon, Iraq. You can see what happened there.”

Although American jets have been helping the Kurds win territory from ISIS in Syria, U.S. officials now say they support Turkey’s strikes against Kurdish targets.

Turkey’s involvement in the war against ISIS could prove a crucial turning point in U.S.-led coalition efforts to destroy the group. Opening a new fighting front against Kurds in the region simultaneously will change the delicate balance of alliances in an already complex war.

GWEN IFILL: I spoke to Jane Ferguson a short time ago.

Jane, we’re talking now about an ISIL/ISIS-free zone right along the border now. Why is it that Turkey is interested in this now?

JANE FERGUSON: Well, Turkey is under increasing pressure. The Turkish president is under pressure from his own population to do something about ISIS and not to be seen as being soft on terror.

Violence in the past week has shocked Turkey. But what’s complicated issues for the Turkish government is the fact that there are so many Kurdish rebels on their border with Syria, on the Syrian side of the border. Those rebels have been making massive gains against ISIS and taking territory away from ISIS whenever they have victories, which they have had in the recent months.

That complicates things for Turkey because the Turkish government are dealing with a large Kurdish minority in their country who, for decades, have been pushing for independence. And they, of course, don’t want to see any bolstering of Kurdish calls for independence right on their border and in their territory.

GWEN IFILL:Is there also — you mentioned the word complication more than once. There are a lot of complications here. And another of them is Syria itself, the degree to which anything involved in this collaboration could help the pro-Assad forces in Syria.

JANE FERGUSON: This, of course, does complicate things, because it will of course be fighting ISIS and not necessarily fighting Assad, and that is something that the Turkish government have been criticizing the coalition for.

They really wanted airstrikes against Assad. They wanted a no-fly zone imposed. So for them, they had been holding out for that. But at the minute, it’s likely that this is really just going — the details of this deal will be revealed tomorrow, probably most likely at that NATO meeting.

So we won’t know the details just yet. But the plan, as far as officials are telling journalists, would be to create this buffer zone to allow certain rebel groups, not Kurdish rebel groups, and certain rebel groups that are being described as moderate, to take over that specific area. That would give them room to resupply. It would give them room to maneuver, room to basically operate in the area around Aleppo, not in Aleppo city.

GWEN IFILL: But we don’t know how far this buffer zone you’re talking about would actually extend.

JANE FERGUSON: That’s not clear yet how far in it would go. It’s unlikely that it would go of course all the way to Aleppo city. That would be an enormous military target.

But if it could just move in far enough to be able to push ISIS away from the border, so that they no longer can touch the Turkish border, that would be significant in itself militarily because that would affect their link to the outside world, essentially.

GWEN IFILL: Turkey and the U.S. are working on plans to sweep Islamic State fighters from a strip of land across the Turkish border with Syria. This comes as Istanbul steps up its air campaign against the extremist group and its crackdown on Kurdish insurgents.

Special correspondent Jane Ferguson reports from Southern Turkey, where many are holding their breaths.

JANE FERGUSON: American fighter jets will soon be launched closer to the Islamic State group than ever before. From this Turkish base at Incirlik, they will pound the extremist group just across the border in Syria.

A new deal between the U.S. and Turkey will allow Americans to launch airstrikes from Turkish soil and increase Turkey’s role in the fight. This is a major turnaround for Turkey, which has been criticized for not doing enough to tackle ISIS. Now deadly attacks by the group along the border have pushed the Turkish government to act.

At this outpost, 100 yards from ISIS, a Turkish soldier was shot dead by the group last week. Elbeyli village is the nearest Turkish village. People here are terrified that ISIS is simply too close. Some told us they want more soldiers to keep them safe.

“We are so nervous,” local resident Mehmet Orman says. “We want to see a normal life again here. We cannot sleep.”

An hour down the road, the group’s power is alarmingly apparent. In areas like this along the Turkish border, ISIS are so close to Turkey that you can see their flags flying. Just behind me on that wall, there is an ISIS flag, just feet away. Now, what the Turkish government want to do is to push ISIS back from these areas to create some sort of safe zone or buffer.

STEVEN COOK, Council on Foreign Relations: It’s clear that Turkey believes that, once you establish a safe zone, people will go back to it.

JANE FERGUSON: Steven Cook is a Middle East scholar at the Council on Foreign Relations.

STEVEN COOK: It will become a place from which moderate Syrian forces will then expand in its march against the Islamic State, as well as the Assad regime. But, of course, one can imagine a whole host of scenarios that pull Turkish forces, as well as potentially American forces further into the Syria fight.

JANE FERGUSON: The Islamic State has also hit the Kurdish people in Eastern Turkey. Ethnic Kurdish communities straddle the border between Turkey and Syria. Kurdish rebel fighters inside Syria have been battling ISIS for months.

Last week, a suicide bomber killed 32 young activists in the Kurdish town of Suruc near the border inside Turkey. The attack shocked the nation and increased calls for action against ISIS. The young people killed here were planning to bring toys for children across the border a few miles to Kobani, where Kurdish forces had routed ISIS earlier this year.

The five-month-long battle for Kobani was a significant victory for the Kurdish forces. It showed their growing strength inside Syria. The Turkish government watched with concern those gains in Kurdish territory, fearful their own Kurdish population may push harder for independence. Now this new deal with the American military opens the door for Turkey to fight not only ISIS, but the Kurds.

And it’s already happening. Turkish jets bombed both ISIS in Syria and Kurdish forces of the Turkish insurgent force called the PKK, based in Iraq, as soon as the deal was announced. A two-year-old cease-fire with those Kurdish rebels in Turkey is now believed to be over. People back in Suruc say Turkey is only starting another war inside its own territory.

In the name of operations against ISIS, they’re attacking Kurds,” this man tells me. “We don’t accept this. I’m sure we don’t want war. Why don’t we want war? Look at Egypt, Kobani, Lebanon, Iraq. You can see what happened there.”

Although American jets have been helping the Kurds win territory from ISIS in Syria, U.S. officials now say they support Turkey’s strikes against Kurdish targets.

Turkey’s involvement in the war against ISIS could prove a crucial turning point in U.S.-led coalition efforts to destroy the group. Opening a new fighting front against Kurds in the region simultaneously will change the delicate balance of alliances in an already complex war.

GWEN IFILL: I spoke to Jane Ferguson a short time ago.

Jane, we’re talking now about an ISIL/ISIS-free zone right along the border now. Why is it that Turkey is interested in this now?

JANE FERGUSON: Well, Turkey is under increasing pressure. The Turkish president is under pressure from his own population to do something about ISIS and not to be seen as being soft on terror.

Violence in the past week has shocked Turkey. But what’s complicated issues for the Turkish government is the fact that there are so many Kurdish rebels on their border with Syria, on the Syrian side of the border. Those rebels have been making massive gains against ISIS and taking territory away from ISIS whenever they have victories, which they have had in the recent months.

That complicates things for Turkey because the Turkish government are dealing with a large Kurdish minority in their country who, for decades, have been pushing for independence. And they, of course, don’t want to see any bolstering of Kurdish calls for independence right on their border and in their territory.

GWEN IFILL:Is there also — you mentioned the word complication more than once. There are a lot of complications here. And another of them is Syria itself, the degree to which anything involved in this collaboration could help the pro-Assad forces in Syria.

JANE FERGUSON: This, of course, does complicate things, because it will of course be fighting ISIS and not necessarily fighting Assad, and that is something that the Turkish government have been criticizing the coalition for.

They really wanted airstrikes against Assad. They wanted a no-fly zone imposed. So for them, they had been holding out for that. But at the minute, it’s likely that this is really just going — the details of this deal will be revealed tomorrow, probably most likely at that NATO meeting.

So we won’t know the details just yet. But the plan, as far as officials are telling journalists, would be to create this buffer zone to allow certain rebel groups, not Kurdish rebel groups, and certain rebel groups that are being described as moderate, to take over that specific area. That would give them room to resupply. It would give them room to maneuver, room to basically operate in the area around Aleppo, not in Aleppo city.

GWEN IFILL: But we don’t know how far this buffer zone you’re talking about would actually extend.

JANE FERGUSON: That’s not clear yet how far in it would go. It’s unlikely that it would go of course all the way to Aleppo city. That would be an enormous military target.

But if it could just move in far enough to be able to push ISIS away from the border, so that they no longer can touch the Turkish border, that would be significant in itself militarily because that would affect their link to the outside world, essentially.